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Postal Workers Want Hazard Pay. The Answer Is No.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: April 5, 2020 7:29 am

Last Updated: April 6, 2020 6:54 am

Petitions have started to circulation around the country. Postal workers need to receive hazard pay, they say. Up until now, the answer has been “no.” Because of how the U.S. Postal service is managed, and a need to preserve money, that is not likely to change.

Among the most recent petitions is from widely used service Change.org. Over 40 postal workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Since the Post Office has almost 500,000 workers, the figure will rise too much larger numbers. Carriers and people who work in the Post Office come into contact with multiple people every day.

Among the reasons that petitioners believe hazard pay is justified is that Megan Brennan USPS CEO has not sent Postal employees masks or sanitizers. She says that workers should follow CDC guidelines, which include social distancing. Additionally, Postal workers are deemed “essential” workers. They have no alternative than to go to work, unlike tens of millions of Americans in other industries. The Post Office is not set up so that people can work from home.

What may be behind Brennan’s decision? One is the Post Office’s financial situation. Over the quarter, which ended December 31, The Postal Service had revenue of $19.3 billion. It had a net loss of $748 million. However, its pension benefit fund needs to have $72 billion to cover future employee retirement costs. The Postal Service has no way to pay that. The U.S. Postal Service’s Board of Governors, which oversees the Post Office, has not figured out a way to deal with this obligation, which can never be paid off.

The second challenge to the Postal System is the chance that fewer people will send packages or mail during the high level of coronavirus pandemic. In many cases, people need to go to Post Office locations to do so. The number of people who go out in public has sharply fallen. A drop in business activity will cripple revenue and increase losses

Petitions of not, Post Office management may not even have a way to fund the distribution of masks and sanitizers. Employees have to continue to deliver mail every single day, whether they have protection or hazard pay or not.

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