U.S. Postal Service Faces Overtime Claims
Appropriate remedies for inefficient work are performance management and redistribution of workloads, not modification of time records regarding overtime. Employers should be realistic in terms of setting expectations for use of overtime and the workload assigned. Even if workers take longer than the time designated for a task, employers still must pay overtime. In short, to control overtime employers should manage their workers and discipline them if necessary, not modify time records.
However, these rules can be hard for employers frustrated with employee performance to follow. Even the federal government – this time, the U.S. Postal Service – has been accused of violating the federal overtime rules. In a lawsuit filed on June 10, 2009 in the Eastern District of Texas, mail carriers in Texarkana and surrounding areas allege that the USPS violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by requiring them to deliver all assigned mail within eight (8) hours, even though their supervisors were informed or should have known that it would take longer. The lawsuit also alleges that the supervisors would routinely modify time records to ensure that no overtime was recorded. The lawsuit seeks $10,000 or more for each plaintiff and estimates that approximately 20,000 mail carriers might be part of the class – i.e., there is a possible total of $200 million in compensatory damages alone. So, while it may be true that “neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” when doing so takes more than 40 hours a week, mail carriers are entitled to overtime pay.
