From National Association of Postal Supervisors NAPS Legislative & Regulatory Update
Although the Obama Administration has pulled the plug on initial proposals to bring postal service employee benefits in line with those of federal workers, it has signaled that it has not backed off of interest in potentially reducing postal employee benefits.
Kenneth Baer, spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, told the Wall Street Journal on May 10 that the Administration is reviewing USPS worker benefit policies and that “[a] more comprehensive package of reforms will be coming down the pike.”
In March, the White House, as part of a preliminary Fiscal Year 2010 budget document, proposed requiring postal workers to pay 27% of their health insurance costs, the same as civil servants and up from the current level of 17% that postal workers currently pay. The plan also called for postal employees to begin paying 67% of their life insurance premiums, just as feds do.
The White House, however, dropped its initial USPS benefits reduction proposal after postal unions complained that changing the benefit payment levels would violate collective bargaining agreements, which mandate the benefit levels, at least for covered workers, and run through 2011. More recent detailed White House FY 2010 budgets did not propose a USPS employee benefits adjustment.
The Obama preliminary budget proposal projected government savings of $752 million in fiscal year 2010, or $9.4 billion over the next decade by reducing USPS worker benefits.
NAPS and other postal employee groups will continue to monitor these developments very closely.