Payroll glitch delayed, disrupted paychecks for more than 50,000 rural mail carriers nationwide
Some Pennsylvania carriers reported problems had not been resolved even weeks after the disruption occurred
Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) sent a letter to United States Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to express concern for rural mail carriers who missed or partially received their September 1 paychecks due to a payroll error. While USPS has since indicated the problem has been resolved, Casey has heard from Pennsylvanians who received incomplete, erroneous, or delayed paychecks in the weeks that followed.
“Pennsylvania is home to over 13,600 Postal Service mail carriers who provide a critical service to our communities, particularly for rural areas of the Commonwealth,” Senator Casey wrote. “Through the COVID-19 pandemic, letter carriers continued to deliver critical medications, allowed voters to safely cast their ballots, and helped us stay connected during a time of isolation. During that period of immense stress and uncertainty, the Nation was able to rely on rural letter carriers. They, in turn, should be able to rely on the Postal Service to provide fair and timely compensation for their work.”
Senator Casey has a long record of pushing the Postal Service to remedy mail service issues in Pennsylvania during Postmaster General DeJoy’s tenure. In September 2020, he conducted an investigation that found significant delays in sending mail-order prescriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The next month, he took the Postmaster General to task after discovering priority mail delayed for up to two weeks in Northeastern Pennsylvania after DeJoy pledged to end delays. In 2021, Casey secured an audit of a Lehigh Valley facility after being turned away when he tried to visit months earlier.
In March 2022, Senator Casey worked to pass the Postal Service Reform Act into law. This bipartisan law implemented reforms to improve the accountability, transparency, and sustainability of the Postal Service. In October 2022, Senator Casey sent a letter to the Postmaster General to address systemic problems with mail delivery throughout Pennsylvania, particularly the Germantown Post Office in Philadelphia and the White Haven Post Office in Luzerne County. At the same time, Senator Casey also requested that an audit be conducted by the USPS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in Philadelphia area post offices to investigate these mail delays. Within a month, USPS OIG responded to Senator Casey’s request by sharing that they would conduct an audit in Southeastern Pennsylvania. This audit found thousands of pieces of mail were delayed and sitting at the post office.
Full text of the letter is below and the signed PDF is HERE.
Dear Postmaster General DeJoy:
I write today to express my concerns with the disruption in payroll at the United States Postal Service that occurred at the end of August that resulted in over 50,000 rural mail carriers either missing or partially receiving their paychecks. Following the incident, postal carriers in Pennsylvania reached out to my office with concerns about the disruption and how it was impacting their lives. While I understand that the Postal Service allowed carriers to receive salary advances via money order worth 65% of their gross pay for the pay period, I have heard that some postal carriers still experienced payroll problems and received incomplete paychecks for the second pay period in a row in mid-September. It is critical that this issue is remedied and prevented from occurring in the future.
Pennsylvania is home to over 13,600 Postal Service mail carriers who provide a critical service to our communities, particularly for rural areas of the Commonwealth that are not guaranteed reliable service by private shipping companies and depend on the Postal Service’s accessibility and affordability. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, letter carriers continued to deliver critical medications, allowed voters to safely cast their ballots, and helped us stay connected during a time of isolation. During that period of immense stress and uncertainty, the Nation was able to rely on rural letter carriers. They, in turn, should be able to rely on the Postal Service to provide fair and timely compensation for their work.
My office has been in touch with the Postal Service to learn more about its response to the payroll glitch. However, continued outreach from constituents expressing disappointment with the Postal Service’s response following these inquiries has increased my concerns with how the Postal Service handled this incident and how it might handle future incidences. To get a better understanding of the situation, I request a response to the following questions:
- Has every letter carrier impacted by the September 1 payroll disruption received full compensation for all missing and incomplete paychecks? If not, is there a plan to get letter carriers their full pay and a timeline for when this will be accomplished?
- When was the issue identified and how much time passed between identification and communication to impacted employees? What did communication with impacted letter carriers look like from the Postal Service to mitigate confusion brought about by the payroll disruption?
- Were there carriers who were unable to access the salary advances offered by the Postal Service?
- Have payroll issues such as this happened before and, if so, were system level changes implemented to address any underlying issues?
I appreciate your attention to this issue and your responses to the above questions. If there is any way that our office can assist you in your efforts, please contact my office.
