One Of The Largest Employers Of Black Workers USPS Is Guilty Of Wage Theft

News broke Tuesday that the U.S. Postal Service has common problems with wage theft. Numerous Black men and women have a spouse and children member or good friend who has labored for the write-up business. The write-up business office has lengthy been one particular of individuals “good government” work with sound fork out and rewards, building greater economic possibility for Black staff.  

Black postal workers, like Josh Dubose, represent close to 25 percent of the Postal Service’s workforce. Dubose was one particular of several employees interviewed as a part of a collaborative investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, Univision, and The Linked Press, to uncover the systemic wage theft within just the company.  

Digging deep into arbitration information, the investigators discovered that in excess of a 9-year period of time, around 250 administrators across 60 post workplaces have been switching worker’s reported hours so that they would be paid out considerably less.  In some instances, individuals who hardly ever obtained paychecks wanted a person of the 3 most important postal unions to intervene.  

“Supervisors found to be cheating were rarely disciplined — generally acquiring only a warning or a lot more instruction. In four towns, arbitration documents show, post workplace managers ongoing to alter time cards after promising union leaders they would end,” read the report in part.  

The investigation also identified that given that 2005, the agency was cited 1,150 moments for this concern. Some situations resulted in staff members receiving paid back again much less than what they were being owed because of to negotiations with the agency.

As America’s most dependable federal company, the news about the Postal Assistance is disappointing. A 2020 study by the Pew Research Heart showed the Postal Company had the maximum web favorability of federal businesses.  

Inspite of services delays and soaring selling prices, the Postal Support experienced bipartisan guidance, with 91 p.c of respondents on the lookout favorably upon the quasi-federal agency. Battling fiscally by a mix of political choices and very poor management from the leading has led to the agency.  

The write-up business has not described a revenue in 15 decades. But that is no excuse to steal wages and labor from hardworking personnel members.  

Stories of wage theft, and tension on supervisors to reduce expenses like extra time, are a aspect of the issue with forcing the publish office to run as a for-gain organization. Wage theft is not new. A 2019 research from the Nationwide Work Law Project believed that private sector reduce-wage personnel, who are disproportionately Black and Latino, $12.6 billion in wages have been stolen from them that 12 months. 

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