Burrus Says USPS Should Offer A Healthy Retirement Incentive

June 1, 2011

To: APWU Members

Perhaps it is time for the Postal Service to consider offering a healthy incentive for APWU represented employees to retire. The wage difference between a Grade 6 Step 0 employee and a newly hired replacement is $18,000 per year ($53,102 vs. $35,182) so for every 1000 employees replaced, the Postal Service saves 18 million dollars per year. It would be in their financial interest to entice those employees eligible for retirement to retire.

The Postal Service is strapped for cash so it will not be easy to fund the cost of an incentive, but there are creative ways to defer the cost while generating savings. In the previous effort, agreement was reached to spread the incentive over two years to lessen its immediate impact on the USPS’ financial position and other innovative approaches could be explored.

The problem is that employees, who are eligible, refrain from severing their employment for a variety of personal reasons and continue to work for lack of an alternative that meets their objectives. An incentive would influence many who will otherwise continue their employment for an indeterminable period.

The consideration of offering an incentive does not include what is known as “early outs” permitting employees to retire earlier than the legal formula. The Postal Service must receive the approval of OPM to offer early outs and such permission will not be granted, if it is intended to replace the retiring employee. Early outs cannot be used to reduce payroll costs.

At a time when the Postal Service is experiencing severe financial problems brought on by the unreasonable payment for future health care costs consideration should be given to this opportunity for significant savings.

In solidarity,
Bill Burrus

Burrus Journal

5 Responses to "Burrus Says USPS Should Offer A Healthy Retirement Incentive"

  1. The law enforcement offers a $50,000. incentive for officers to retire over and above their money for annual and sick leave. The Post Office offered $20,000. to management but not to craft which is an insult since nothing would get done without craft. When our Postmaster is gone, our office is self-sufficient, and everything gets done on time and correctly but we receive absolutely no recognition for our work. If they offered at least $20,000. to craft then I would be gone and it would save them the difference between my salary and the new PSE. Apparently I will need that since it is taking them months to start retirement payments for new retirees. Think that is why no one is leaving?

  2. Add time ,or cash incentives, do something, there are plenty of carriers just waiting for something to happen and when it does plenty will go, I being one of them, or.. keep paying me top pay, sounds pretty easy to figure out. Why isn’t something being done?

  3. Its simple just add time instead of money to the person retiring. If you added two years to a persons time that would be 4% more in retirement . That way Post office has no upfront cost and the person retiring would not have to pay large sum of taxes up front.
    Simple.

  4. They should offer one annual pay at a minimum for people to take the incentive.
    That is very inexpensive way to get rid of most employees.
    Otherwise they will hang in there untill there is no more work or money to pay them. And i am one of them.

  5. With the economy as it is, I foresee most folks who are borderline hanging on to their jobs at the PO. I know an EAS employee who is being RIF’d and he passed up the $20,000 incentive because if he stays another few years, it will work out better for him, (if he can find another position).

    It would have to be a VERY healthy incentive and I don’t think the PMG could sneak something like that past THIS congress. That’s too bad. They really could save millions.

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