WASHINGTON¡ªThe U.S. Postal Service is in the middle of a staffing reduction plan that is expected to include thousands of postal workers taking early retirement, and an unknown number of upper-level positions being eliminated.
Postal spokesman, Greg Frey, declined to call the staff reductions layoffs, but confirmed the service expects to dole out between 4,000 and 8,000 early retirement packages to its employees, and eliminate 15 percent of ¡°headquarters and headquarters-related¡± positions, citing a slumping U.S. economy as the reason.
Frey said today that the post office, while a government agency, is funded by customer purchases, much like any other business, and like every other business in America right now, the post office is feeling the financial crunch.
¡°We are basically reflecting a lot of that,¡± he said.
The latest sign of that reflection is the service¡¯s two-pronged approach to cutting staffing costs. The first is an offer of early retirement to mail handlers, clerks, and initial-level supervisors with at least 20 years with the service. The first wave of offers went out this summer, to 72,000 employees, and Frey said 3,685 of those workers¡ªabout 5 percent¡ªhave accepted packages.
The next wave of retirement offers are going to 67,000 employees, who have until the end of November to choose to accept. The final wave will include 17,000 employees who will have until Jan. 16, 2009, to accept early retirement. In all, Frey said the service is offering retirement to 156,000 employees, and the service expects 3-5 percent of those employees, or 4,680-7,800, to retire.
¡°It¡¯s voluntary. There¡¯s no pressure whatsoever,¡± Frey said.
The other half of the service¡¯s plan involves what Frey called a 15 percent ¡°staffing reduction¡± of ¡°headquarters and headquarters-related, authorized staffing.¡±
Frey said anyone currently employed in one of the eliminated positions would be allowed to transfer to another position within the service, and would only be offered severance sometime this spring, after it had been determined that a reassignment was not possible.
¡°It takes a number of months to play out,¡± he said.
Frey, citing a 2007 annual postal service report, said the service currently employs 11,000 people in that category, but there may be other unfilled positions subject to reduction. Frey declined to indicate how many positions are considered headquarters and headquarters-related in total.
Frey said carrier service will most likely be unaffected, saying, ¡°We¡¯re not losing ground on that.¡±
Staff reductions are not new to the postal service. Frey said the service has cut more than 100,000 jobs in the past five years. As to future cuts, Frey said it depends on the current state of the economy.
¡°Are we shrinking? Yes. How far will this go? I don¡¯t know,¡± he said.
