The U.S. Postal Service may have its problems, but they evidently aren’t severe enough to persuade many supervisors and administrators to jump at an early retirement offer.
Out of 3,594 Executive and Administrative Schedule employees eligible for the package, just 186 signed up by the Nov. 19 deadline, according to Postal Service figures provided today.
The package—standard for the federal government–allows employees to retire early if they are at least 50 years old with a minimum of 20 years’ service, or any age with at least 25 years’ service. Unlike recent early retirement offers to postmasters, mail handlers and clerks, however, this one was not coupled with a cash incentive (i.e., buyout).
“If there was an incentive, you could have gotten a lot more,” Louis Atkins, president of the National Association of Postal Supervisors, said in an interview. But because there are already plenty of vacancies in EAS ranks, he said, “it would have been very difficult to convince Congress that they needed that.” Factor in the shaky economy and the fact that Civil Service Retirement System participants under 55 take a penalty for retiring early, and Atkins wasn’t surprised at the low number of takers.
The Postal Service had unveiled the offer in September, saying at the time that about 3,300 employees were eligible. Those who have accepted must leave by year’s end. But Atkins was confident that more EAS early retirement offers are coming next year as the Postal Service resumes mail processing plant closures and consolidations.
19 Comments
Why take an early retirement offer? The EAS system is set up so that most will get promoted or take a higher-level assignment to increase their pension payment through average of high 3 years of earnings upon which their pension is based. Besides, they can ignore the craft employee contracts and bully/lord over the carriers and clerks, despite the NUMEROUS contract arbitration settlements that prohibit such behavior. If only the craft unions would even attempt to get a court injunction to uphold the arbitration settlements, THEN USPS management would be held accountable for their actions. And, maybe someone in the legislature would look at the way these con artists pad their pensions.
Then lay them off.
Heck I don’t blame them…..they never did a lick of work anyway….so why retire when you can go to work, make the underlings and corworkers miserable and get big bucks for it? LOL
check out Elmira and Horseheads NY post offices, if you make 65k-80k + bonuses and incentives as a PM or Supervisor , and get to daily throw abuse and intimidation at employees, shop on the clock while delivering express mail, or just disappear would you give it up?, the Inspectors and OIG back management up all the way, recently set up a clerk in one of the offices, privatization is crucial and needed now!
all the above comments by underworked and overpaid craft employees. Can’t believe that these people really think that all the postal service problems are caused by management. Get rid of the unions and make these people work to earn their pay and the postal service would show a profit.
Wow, Carter good job ignoring the retiree overfunding and all the other issues and problems the Postal Service faces. Maybe you could read an article or two in the Federal Times before you use the ubiquitous tea party response.
Going on year 3 with no pay raise so don’t know how you say management makes the big bucks. Unions killing the Post Office, craft violate the contract daily then when there caught want to hide behind the contract. If privatized then maybe we can get rid of the blood sucking overtime hounds when there is very little mail.
Throw a bag on your shoulder and hit the bricks.Go walk a mile in the mans shoes before you make a comment like that.I had my full of supervisors playing computer games, sleeping when out on street supervision, talking on cell phones when we’re told not to.Don’t forget when you point a finger a some one there are three pointing right back at you.
The pampered craft emloyee is whats putting the postal service out of buisness. The Lazy Mailhandler and the non productive clerk. Its time to get rid of all the craft emloyees and hire casuals and PSE leave the craft employees alone because that dont vaue a real job put them on the street.
What a brilliant answer (only #5 above). You are right up there with the geniuses. I shall resign my Mensa membership effective immediately in your honor. Thanks for the revelation. You are a living testament to what is right with society. Keep up the good work…I.Q. Boy.
Sorry, McCoy, clerk position have been cut, carrier routes have increased stops, all based on manipulated data during the height of the economic crisis. Mail volume is as high as it was during peak years, only Upper management, PRC and Congress are too lazy to counter a few mail industry lobby hacks who endlessly whine about prices: US postage rates are the least expensive in the world and cover the largest geographic area (except for a few island nations or like Saudia Arabia that subsidize their rates).
And, like I said before, a real, honest investigation would highlight all these facts, including the high number of management jobs that recyccle the same information from one level to the next and use that information (manipulated to meet their predetermined biases) to bully, harass and intimidate clerks and carriers. All while padding their pensions.
Why get off the GRAVY TRAIN ?????
Carter McCoy, you hit it right on the nose. The craft employees need to take a look in the mirror and will understand where the problems are. Just too greedy in the OT’s and milking their day away. After all of that, then they complain. Way to go.
Bingo & Carter you got it right. I case a route to split out (usually three ways), case and carry the route I am assigned to and then take a split off another route. OTDL list means nothing. If that’s milking it just call me Borden’s. The PO is going broke yet there are 3 supervisors for 17 Carrier routes in my little station. Missy, please use the spellchecker.
Postal 2000 please provide an example of how a Craft employee could violate the contract. Last time I checked Article III gave you the right to mis-manage.
Every one of the (NEGOTIATED and AGREED upon) Articles in the National Agreements are necessary to keep you from messing with an employee. Even with a JCAM you continue to violate and then get mad when confronted with a grievance.
I do not get mad at grievances craft get mad when there caught doing something there no suppose to ( hour lunches,not wearing seat belts while delivering mail,call in sick after every holiday) then when written up they run crying to there steward, please HELP I got caught doing something I’m not suppose to do.
Interesting read on all accounts. I got into to management in an attempt to make a differrence. There is enough blame to go around and you don’t have to look far. I find it hard sometimes to look my people in the eye because of just flat out poor strategies by those at the top. The claim is mail volume is decreasing avery year so then why is the postal service not gearing up to wage war on the package industry??? People are buying more and more online and someone has to ship that stuff. No one seems to be looking at the future… only chasing numbers for unreal expectations in the now! We run non machinable mail everyday and expect the machines to generate the numbers that machinable mail is capable of producing. We will stick an untrained person on a 3/4 million dollar piece of equipment and blame the machine for poor performance! I’d like to know where thoase management jobs are where you can sleep or get lost! I myself work 10-12 hours a day and get paid for 8….Forget about personal time…. there’s not enough of us to go around for anyone here to be slack! Postal Service is a great place to work, but too many have lost site of how good they actually have it and complain about how bad they think they have it! Trust me try and get a job on the outside doing what you do for what you get paid to do! Find me a custodian on the outside they makes 50K a year or anything close to a mail handler they makes 100K, yeah I said 100K…you know they’re out there……
Do like private industry does lay them off maybe with a severance.
Postal 2000- Article 19 incorporates all the hand books and manuals into the contract, as an example if a carrier or clerk extended their lunch that would be a violation of the contract. It would be up to the supervisor to do their job and correct that behavior…. but the craft member still violated the contract.