The US Postal Service is strengthening its organizational structure from 67 districts to 50, a move that will shake and shrink the agency’s workforce.
Postal management offers voluntary early retirement to affected staff, which includes administrative staff at its Washington headquarters, as well as those in area offices and “headquarters-related” offices. The USPS has said it will make offers, which will not include a separation incentive and will take effect on April 30, to avoid forced layoffs or reductions. The agency said the changes would “improve efficiency” and better serve postal customers.
Dave Partenheimer, a spokesman for the USPS, declined to provide details on how many employees would be given the chance to retire early or how many jobs they are trying to eliminate from the postal service. The Agency did not rule out that RIFs might become necessary if an insufficient number of workers accepted early retirement offers.
The USPS has warned that more changes in the workforce will continue in the coming months, noting that a final stage of organizational change is underway and will announce the impact of staff in May.
The new districts will be closely aligned with the state borders, as shown below in a map obtained by Government executive. The USPS briefed area staff on Wednesday afternoon when it announced changes to the media. In addition to district consolidations, labor cuts have been necessary as a result of the changes, as the USPS centralizes its marketing functions, rather than keeping them scattered across its district and area levels. The postal service will also align its logistics and processing operations along the same geographical lines as its retail and delivery operations.
The shakeup is the second set of organizational changes that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced since taking office last year, following a realignment of postal work in three divisions last summer, which was accompanied by a mix of C suite directors. .
“These organizational changes will strengthen our mission and commitment to serving the American people by improving efficiency and streamlining decision-making throughout the organization,” said Postmaster General DeJoy. “By improving the operational focus and execution of the business strategy, together with greater investment, we will strengthen our public service mission, achieve service excellence and put the postal service on a path to financial sustainability.”
DeJoy has promised to launch a 10-year business plan in the coming weeks that will include several changes, some of which will require legislative or regulatory approval.
The USPS last offered large-scale early retirement in 2018, when it provided the incentive for 26,000 administrators and postal officials. The postal service said at the time that these offers were part of an effort to “properly increase” the workforce in response to the accelerating decline in postal volumes. It started with several efforts to reduce the workforce in the early 2010s, as it strengthened mail processing plants and slowed down mail delivery. DeJoy said the USPS will again look at slowing down delivery windows as part of its future plan, but did not anticipate whether this would be coupled with plant closures or additional labor wear measures.
The postal service now has about 500,000 career employees, down nearly 300,000 from its peak at the turn of the century. The USPS dramatically increased its out-of-career workforce at that time, which now numbers over 100,000.