Big Changes for Postal Employees Considered

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee has started hearings that among other topics will examine whether the postal service should be broken off from the Federal Employees Health Benefits program and the federal retirement systems. The hearings will review recommendations of a presidential commission that said that health and retirement benefits should be negotiable at USPS as they are at comparably sized private sector companies. Personnel costs account for the large majority of spending at USPS and health insurance and retirement account for nearly half of personnel costs, the commission noted. Meanwhile, USPS has asked a House panel to relieve the agency of the burden of paying for the share of retirement benefits for its employees attributable to military service. Congress last year reduced the amount USPS pays the Treasury for accumulating retirement benefits after determining the USPS had been overpaying for years.