New Hampshire Congressman Demands Answers in Postal Service Timekeeping Fraud
Washington, DC— Today, Congressman Paul Hodes called on the United States Postal Service to present a plan to fully reimburse postal workers for the wages they have lost as a result of managers manipulating their timecards. Several weeks ago, an investigation uncovered a scheme at five New Hampshire postal stations to manipulate workers’ timecards, and the individuals responsible for these actions have yet to be held accountable.
“It has been weeks and the hard-working employees at these post offices are still waiting for answers,” said Congressman Hodes. “The USPS should immediately present a plan to ensure that workers are immediately reimbursed for their lost wages, and that appropriate disciplinary action is taken. Those individuals responsible for cheating New Hampshire families out of hard earned wages must be held accountable.”
Earlier this year, Congressman Hodes wrote to the USPS Inspector General asking for an investigation into claims that management at the Milford Post Office, Manchester South Station, and Manchester West Station had manipulated time cards to cheat workers out of wages to which they were entitled. The investigation revealed that management at these stations and at the Somersworth and Salem post offices had in fact engaged in these practices and denied New Hampshire workers the wages they had earned.
The full text of the letter is below:
Dear Postmaster General Potter,
A United States Postal Service (“USPS”) Office of Investigator General (“OIG”) investigation revealed on October 15, 2009 that managers at 5 New Hampshire postal stations were manipulating time sheets in order to underpay workers. I request information on the USPS’s plan of action to respond to this OIG report, whether the USPS plans to reimburse workers, and what steps USPS is taking to ensure that this type of manipulation does not happen again.
In May of this year, I wrote to USPS Inspector General David Williams requesting that his office investigate claims that the United States Postal Service had altered letter carriers’ timesheets on an electronic time system for the last six years. His investigation subsequently revealed that management altered time entries which, according to a letter from Mr. Williams, “resulted in the removal of straight time, overtime night differential and penalty overtime causing employees to be underpaid.” These managers stole time from letter carriers at five New Hampshire postal stations, even as they worked on Christmas Eve.
The USPS must properly reimburse workers for the wages that were taken from them and hold the managers who engaged in these deceitful, unethical practices accountable for their actions. The postal workers in my district deserve answers, and they deserve to be reimbursed for the wages that they have earned. The USPS must put practices in place to make sure that electronic time system manipulation does not happen again, and that those individuals who cheated letter carriers out of hard-earned wages are held accountable. I request that you present a plan to accomplish these goals, and look forward to your reply.
November 11th, 2009 08:56
i am curious to know what the outcome of the investigation was. and if the time deleted was time actually earned, or time that was caused by employees punching the clock early without permission. this happens frequently in our office, and when it does we discipline personal for it, some of them do it unintentionally, but some of them do it to gain that few extra cents for night differential, and or overtime unauthorized. I would welcome the entire investigation results before making an opinion. For this representative to be demanding anything from the postal service, before total investigation is complete sounds like political maneuvering instead of real concern for constituents. Remember there is an election soon.
November 11th, 2009 10:13
Yeah well how do you explain a manager going into my clock rings and putting me on a lunch function for two hours? Because the didn’t want to pay the v-time that they approved.
November 11th, 2009 17:35
Let me guess, Mr Montano is a low life manager, who of course sees no wrong in managers taking away time.
November 12th, 2009 02:51
The easiest way to curtail the practice of shaving time from employees is to give employees real time access to their clock rings. That increases the chance of detection and stopping it.
November 12th, 2009 09:33
Of course Mr. Montano is a manager….he doesn’t know the difference between “personal” and “Personnel”.
November 12th, 2009 17:41
In order to disallow time, we managers must document on a log as to why this occurred. Falsifying time records is against the law. If any employee (craft or management) is caught doing this, they can be fired immediately. If the investigation was done properly, they would have looked for a form 1017 to see if it was documented. The fact that they are still employed shows there may be more to this story than is reported. Be patient, the wheels of the USPS turn slowly when it comes to terminating someone.
November 20th, 2009 19:04
The whole PO is a fraud.
November 20th, 2009 23:28
LOL! A Boss, the wheels turn so slowly that I think they are in reverse.
December 24th, 2009 21:35
make the employees whole! make managers that have ever practice this, accountable. Now! Employees have already a struggle in front of thier careers on getting wage increases, while managers make thier higher salary for following thier managers instructions,being told how to manage thier post office,well business is business,micro managing and penciled in records equals to mismanagement, and wasteful spending. Most carriers just want to due thier 8 and go! Carriers would not need a manager if thier route was paid for 8 (RURAL) hmmm! look how much we would save on the budget by not promoting useless ex-craft employees that may have been lazy, in managers jobs, I’m fortunute to have a good manager ,after we carriers trained them! first, if there is a manager, that beats anyone out of thier hard earn time, should be sentence ,a year, per click, spread the wealth! =)second, if we start hiring good employees that don’t mind honest work for honest pay ,that might be where we need to seek posible managers and not dead beat ex-clerks and lazy carriers that wanna be managers! go postal service go!
January 11th, 2010 11:52
The Milford Cabinet Newspaper (Milford NH) has published an article outlining a massive grievance where the arbitrator sided with every contention the Union made, including punitive damages. THE POSTAL SERVICE DID NOT CHALLENGE ANY OF THE FACTS OF THE CASE. Still, no discipline of managers. Falsifying another’s time is a falsification of a government report, and is a crime under the Postal ELM. Violating the FLSA is a violation of Federal Law. These managers also defrauded the USPS with these phony numbers to make their bonus bigger, which violates the Federal False Claims Act, not to mention RICO Statutes. There will be a settlement forthcoming in other crafts in Milford, NH, as it was done to them also. Other offices to follow. Still no answer from Potter to Hodes, either. In addition, a refusal to release more years of clock ring data is before the NLRB. Anything else, Samuel??????
January 11th, 2010 11:57
By the way, the Cabinet Article was Dec. 23, 2009. Oh, yeah, and before any grievances were filed, the Union told management to contact the OIG. They were “not interested” until the Congressman contacted them demanding an investigation. In the mean-time, management engaged in a policy of trying to shut down Union activity and intimidate workers. Grievances on those issues were all sustained in the Union’s favor. That might help “A BOSS” get the whole picture……