An IG report issued earlier this year said that work remains to shore up protections against unauthorized access to LiteBlue accounts. Image: T. Schneider/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAn arbitrator has denied a grievance brought against the USPS regarding the cyberattack on the LiteBlue personnel portal that resulted in an undisclosed number of employees having their payroll direct deposits misrouted to hackers in late 2022 to early 2023.
The attack consisted of creating spoof websites of LiteBlue with similar names and web addresses, which appeared in popular search engines and which some employees inadvertently logged into, exposing their login information.
The decision was released by the NALC union, which brought a grievance that later was joined by other postal unions seeking to require the USPS to recompense the affected employees for their lost income. The unions asserted that postal management violated contract provisions regarding employee pay by not doing enough to assure that the pay reached the intended recipient.
The USPS replied that the contracts only obligate it to issue payment for hours worked, and not to take further action to make sure the employees actually receive the money. The arbitrator agreed, saying that while the contract language was ambiguous, “the union has to prove that its interpretation is superior to that of the Postal Service — that the Postal Service actually violated some provision of the agreement. The union failed to do so.”
An IG report issued earlier this year said that work remains to shore up protections against unauthorized access to LiteBlue accounts. It said the system was vulnerable because the USPS did not implement multi-factor authentication in timely way, it did not sufficiently escalate the incident and identify vulnerabilities early, and did not make security awareness training mandatory.
The NALC meanwhile announced a tentative agreement on a contract through November 2026 providing for a 1.3 percent raise effective November 22; retroactive raises of the same size covering 2022 and 2023; cost of living adjustments each six months through November 2026, the first three to be paid retroactively; and more.
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