USPS OIG Audit on Unauthorized Overtime
WHAT THE OIG FOUND:
The Postal Service has established procedures to monitor and control unauthorized overtime. However, managers and supervisors did not always follow the prescribed procedures, as we identified issues relating to Postal Service (PS) Form 1017-B, Unauthorized Overtime Record; PS Form 3996, Carrier – Auxiliary Control; Time and Attendance Collection System (TACS) updates; and controls over time cards. As a result, we identified 7.5 million unauthorized overtime workhours in fiscal year (FY) 2010 and 10.6 million in FY 2011, at a combined cost of $717.5 million to the Postal Service.
WHAT THE OIG RECOMMENDED:
We recommended the chief operating officer and executive vice president instruct the vice presidents, Area Operations, to issue supplemental guidance reinforcing the importance of completing PS Forms 1017-B, reviewing PS Forms 3996, and taking action to either approve or disapprove carrier overtime requests before carriers leave for their routes, and following badge control and clock ring procedures to ensure employees are unable to perform unauthorized work. Also, have supervisors review required TACS reports, provide periodic refresher training to managers and supervisors on monitoring unauthorized overtime, hold managers and supervisors accountable for not addressing unauthorized overtime, and establish and implement proactive monitoring processes including periodic reminders and a system of accountability to minimize unauthorized overtime
WHAT MANAGEMENT SAID:
Management agreed with the findings and recommendations and plan to implement corrective actions by September 30, 2012. Management also agreed with the monetary impact of $717.5 million reported.
USPS OIG Audit Found $717.5 Million in Unauthorized Overtime
Joanne, honey…are you tired of the union’s lies?
We are being told there is “no mail” and we have too any employees… The use of overtime is proof enough. We are tired of the lies.
Why is there overtime????
If there is OT and TOO MANY EMLOYEES, something is being mismanaged.
Who’s to blame.?
INCOMPETENT MANAGEMENT !!!
From Donohoe down to the lowest custodian supervisor, management is CLUELESS !
Let the workers work, get rid of PCES and all EAS.
And remember, “one of us is mistaken”
Call Your Senators:
202-224-3121Yes across the country, jobs will be re-posted, do not worry, the APWU is worried about …. the food and accommodations at the national Convention in August, Cliff “no Balls” Guffey has a Suite for his cronies and all the National Coordinators, yes they care about…. themselves,so the APWU is against the VERA’s, the APWU needs your dues for that big party in Vegas, we went to some of these and the local parties were 15k to 20k blowouts, this national one, put your own figure to it, a waste of dues from you,so as you the craft union member suffer or lose your job and/or employment, Cliff Guffey your national Union president will be partying hardy in Vegas,” As the USPS and APWU Burn “!
Support S. 1789, there is no choice now;
(Capitol Switchboard)
[Click here for direct #s]
Tell them you Support
Senate Bill 1789.
As I go through these posts I admit that I’m in agreement with most of them, however what I have not seen is how management comes into a station with their little hand held dois machines and totally dismantle them. When they are finished most routes are so far out of adjustment, the lines of travel are a joke, and no one not even our union comes back to try and straighten things out. Their mindset is to eleminate as many routes as they can. With these tatics and overburdened routes how can you not expect to have overtime? And then these clowns who are in charge so they think refuse every 3996 that come their way. So now you have a situation for unarthorized overtime, which could not be helped by the carrier when this could have been addressed first thing in the morning. How can upper management give a blanketed order like all mail must go today, advos, marraige mail, political mail, and daily mail, and no overtime!!! Don’t give me an impossible task to accomplish in the first place, and then blame me when I can’t. And for you guys who want to blout out I’m just lazy, I’ve been here for 23 years and never had a problem before they came down the pipe with all this B.S.
Wow, just about all the prior comments have some merit. The individuals that conduct these audits are prior supervisors and management who could not follow or enforce the very practices they mentioned or have the proper forms completd in their offices as well.
‘The audits are a waste of resources that could be used more productively in other areas, like assisting both craft and management in having a more productive work force.
Too much money is being wasted on grievances, OT, POT and poor work habits.
Like one comment; work slow for the dough, is true in too mant instances.
Working for the USPS used to be a prestigious job, but not anymore.
There is no consistency in the way it is managed.
This is what we need to do, nothing to lose, jobs will be .
You have hit the nail into Guffey’s, well he has no balls, whatever, in reference to all this effort by the Unions to fight the PMG, lost cause !, strike !, in private industry we had some violent strikes, but we had to, to survive, slashed tires, bent heads, etc, these pussy unions will get nowhere, we are dealing with the Third Reich, the Gestapo OIG and Inspectors, yes the tools of management, scum they are, this is a war!, and we the craft are losing, fighting back through Congress is a failure, Teamsters would sit down and take it?, no frigging way !, all this call your Senator is crap, and these same unions will try to stop any VERA, they want dues over your dead body, strike now, and if violence is needed, so ! be ! it !
mojo. Your statment is reality. DOIS is just a tool mnot an exact science. Bully boy management style is a reaction and not intelligence.
.
Management tries to use DOIS; carrier says the route will take 8hrs,20 min today; manager says DOIS says 8hrs-get done in 8 (despite numerous nat’l settlements regarding DOIS as only one tool to determine workload). Basically, manager is too lazy to give OT to a Ptf OR TE, INSTEAD TRIES TO BULLY, INTIMIDATE AND HARASS (creating hostile work environment). After this happens to a carrier year after year, depending upon mood of manager, on a weekly, if not daily basis, carrier just goes ahead and runs overtime. The next day, when ACTUAL piece count of all classes of mail is added up, most likely the
DOIS ACTUAL workload shows that carrier needed 20 minutes OT.
OIG needs to look at the REALITY of the workplace: their recommendation will just encourage more bullying from management because that is easier than actual counting ALL the mail and working with carrier to determine ACTUAL DAILY WORKLOAD.
With NALC lemmings chanting their mantra “go slow…more dough”, how else does one get the job done? Force them to do their jobs? Not if you want to spend endless hours on grievances filed by their union arguing that you can’t force them to work. More staff? Well, with the walking wounded coming over from the clerks ranks along with the disgruntled clerks that decide to show maneement a thing or 2 by feigning injury not to mention the fact that NALC lives to file on maneement doing work along with Area & District mandates that no mail be left behind and what do you have? OT ! Plain and simple. So, privatize and these roadblocks disappear! Screw the NALC and ByeBye APWU (they’re ready to flat-line anyways). Wanna make more money? Wanna make up for that OT that is bound to disappear? Fill out that PS 1188 today! You’ll immediately get at least a $100 per month raise! And you didn’t even need those union bosses to get it for ya! Thats right…..scabscabscabscabscabscab…whatever!
You have hit the nail into Guffey’s, well he has no balls, whatever, in reference to all this effort by the Unions to fight the PMG, lost cause !, strike !, in private industry we had some violent strikes, but we had to, to survive, slashed tires, bent heads, etc, these pussy unions will get nowhere, we are dealing with the Third Reich, the Gestapo OIG and Inspectors, yes the tools of management, scum they are, this is a war!, and we the craft are losing, fighting back through Congress is a failure, Teamsters would sit down and take it?, no frigging way !, all this call your Senator is crap, and these same unions will try to stop any VERA, they want dues over your dead body, strike now, and if violence is needed, so ! be ! it !
Let’s see, in the morning I tell my supervisor that I am going to be 30 minutes over 8 hours. Extra DPS, extra parcels, it’s a red plum day, and all bulk mail has to go. They tell me they do not understand why it will take longer. (That is the basic problem in a nutshell, they DO NOT understand). Accountables have not been brought around, they did not include the true parcel/spur count in their DOIS, and ignore the fact that it is 5 minutes before my leave time and I have not finished throwing mail yet.
My suggestion to rollback the bulk flats is ignored. As a non-vol they tell me they will allow me to give a 15 minute bump but want me back in 8 hours. When I clarify the math that 30 minus 15 is still 15 minutes over I am told to “do the best I can”. Guess what? 14 minutes overtime. There, came in a minute under. Next day shows the true estimate for my workload to be 8:44. Still, it is considered unauthorized overtime.
We need less people that do not move the mail. Less supervisors. Less reports. Less stupidity.
In our plant the 204B’s were making so much overtime they were making more than the promoted Supervisors and what the MDO’s made. A memo was just sent out to a number of them to only work their prescribed hours or else. Rumor is that they were fixing each other time…Yeah right, come on June 1!
what a joke. i wish i could report on the OIG’s. most of carriers i worked with were honest and hard working. the rest were usually active union members or stewards. they complain that most supervisors should be fired. so, you can get away with more time on the clock. how many times do u need to say, go slow for more dough. i say, anyone that thinks that way or works that way, should be suspended or worse. how bout, you work to the best of your abilities, day to day. some days you feel better than others. now, if the sup’s were doing their jobs. following a very strict guideline of work practices. most of you then would cry to see ur steward. flowchart. m-39, m-41. responsiblities of a letter carrier. most of biggest complainers are the lazy. too bad, it really gives unions a bad name. unions were a blessing for workers. my generation is abusing them in the name of going slow for more dough. some people have no pride. when i hear politicans speak about american workers, sometimes i think about them. but again, i’m retired so i don’t have to worry about so called slugs anymore. sweet.
Unauthorized overtime happens when postal employees are too busy doing real work to spend the extra time to authorize the overtime that would require additional overtime to complete the paperwork to get everything authorized.
Regardless of who is to blame for whatever process or system in place it is clear that dysfunction is rampant. Mail volume has declined but it continues to get harder to adapt. Everyone has a solution or reason why things don’t run smoothly but you plug one hole and three more appear. Public sees commercials of a Mail Carrier all relaxed with time to converse and thinks that’s the way it is and that is why they get their mail at 9:00 PM. Craft sees local Management spending all morning scrambling doing reports instead of addressing their needs and thinks local Management is inept and unresponsive. Middle Management mandated to micromanage offices regardless of local ability. It seems overwhelmingly apparent that Privatization is the only way to make things run effectively. Unless you can weed out poor performers, both management and craft, there will never be an effective system that will work. It takes buy-in and commitment from everyone involved to make something work and there are too many that have given up on our system and too many that are just along for the ride with not enough commitment.
Once again a prime example of dumb top down management. Paperwork, paperwork, cut unjustified overtime. Way down the ranks are killing the postal service.
Then you read that to the people trying to get our product to our customers are prioritizing what they can and cannot do in a limited time frame. To quote the OIC,” paperwork not a priority, mail processing and delivery duties took precedence.” This report does not thank them at all for using common sense.
Top down mangement which does not see the “little” picture reminds me of an old saying. “When yer up to ya ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember your primary mission was to drain the swamp.”
Sorry, mis read, I worked 12 hours today without a 3996, I’m tired.
Is it just me or does 7.5 mill and 10.6 mil add up to 18.1 mill not 717.5 mil. Maybe thats the PO,s problem, basic math.
7 million hrs—– 700 million dollars. That’s $100/hr. My OT rate isn’t even half that, how ’bout you?? Postal math again!!!
Yes, this is just another study done so the OIG can validate their existence.
hey guys, it is just a joke, take it easy.
Very simple solution. Supervisors giving out unauthorized OT? Deduct OT money from supervisors salary. Oh wait. Can’t do that, then something would get accomplished. 717M? Beer change.
NALC: April 12 Demonstrations to Save America’s Postal Service
April 3, 2012 by postal
Filed under: NALC, postal, postal reform
On April 12, the National Association of Letter Carriers will hold “Save America’s Postal Service” demonstrations outside of Senate offices across the country. They are designed to put pressure on each senator to support S. 1789.
S. 1789 likely will be brought up in the Senate following the Easter recess, the week that follows the April 12 demonstrations. The timing and impact of these events will be critical in helping us to pass S. 1789 and save America’s Postal Service.
If S. 1789 were to pass, the bill would help the Postal Service by:
Saving six-day mail delivery.
Saving door-to-door mail delivery.
Fully addressing the Postal Service’s pre-funding requirement.
Offering 25k and other Incentives for Early Retirements,which will alleviate the ongoing excessing due to Office closures.
These events are meant to engage the public through the use of speeches, handouts and demonstrations to make our voices heard, we ask the PMG, “What is holding up the VERA’s?
The Postal Service has a wide variety of supporters, many of whom may wish to participate in your “Save America’s Postal Service” demonstration, including small-business owners who use the mail to advertise, veterans groups, local elected officials, labor union members, faith leaders, and progressive allies who have concerns for the plight of working men and women, and offer these workers decent retirement Incentives in April , 2012.
In our P&DC facility mailhandlers on the ODL (overtime desired list) are able to work virtually around the clock! We had three mailhandlers make over $140,00 last year…but I’m not saying it wasn’t authorized, what i am saying is HIRE MORE PEOPLE!
The Pigs of the OIG, they are now going after craft big time, to show that they are needed, they are not ,they give free reign to all criminal activities for EAS Employees/management, OIG the Pigs are a tool of management, they are the best at setting up craft employees and here is another worthless example, they should blame management , employees closing stations and branches alone, incurring overtime, look at who cast the stones, they , the OIG, are a criminal element , they waste precious dollars on worthless studies, and setting up craft employees, why not tell the stupid managers!
Supervisors evidently not preforming job description,lack the knowledge or do not have time to do what has to be done to get carriers on the street or have consolidated vaccant routes by adding delivers to adjoining routes and expect carriers to complete routes on time without knowledge DPS has occupant mail with 88% coverage and route adjusted on DOIS data based on what is expected rather than accurate factual data, Carrier directed to complete route on overtime verbal after the fact no 3996.
OIG never been in the trenches to have an understanding of compotents variables that exist in total job. OIG needs to be in criminal activity investigations and let Postal Inspection Service perform audits as was performed by OIG. Inspection service part of USPS and many have walked in craft jobs and understand the basics of postal operations.
Carrier supervisors are selected by MPOO from offices that PM wants to get rid of or wanting to give experience in supervision with no training. Custodians have been selected to work as a delivery supervisor with on the job training.
Districts should be held accountable and take corrective action to correct management mismanagement.
don’t worry about the oig for long, if the pmg gets what he wants the po will not be able to afford the oig and it will be a thing of the past.
overtime? we can’t be using overtime, we have too many employees. right?
The OIG is an absolute waste of money, postal inspectors perform most of the same functions. Furthermore, nobody is working OT without approval, the lazy dsiorganized bozo managers just lose or ignore the forms.Get rid of OIG, cut managers 40%,go to evaluated routes, discipline managers for repeated conract violations and lost grievances.
I am a steward in the Brooklyn PDC. These OIG audits are a joke. The OIG agents do audits on every conceivable issue and problem and nothing ever gets done. They complete their reports and submit them with great fanfare. Postal Service management agrees to follow many of the recommendations and what happens? NOTHING!! It’s all a game. For example, OIG agents came into Brooklyn to inspect OSHA safety violations to see if they could decrease the amount of fines they receive from OSHA. Of course, Brooklyn wasn’t the only facility that they audited. They went across the country auditing different areas. They released their audit several months later and guess what? NOTHING HAPPENED!!! It was business as usual. It’s all a joke. I have no faith in the OIG or the Postal Managers to do anything regarding making the Postal Service more efficient or productive. It’s a waste of time other than providing a good news story for people who don’t know anything about the Postal Service to read.