If you were one of the unfortunate rural mail carriers who are working on recently adjusted routes and noticed a significant drop in your pay step after the recent mail count, I feel your pain because I am one of them myself.

In September of this year, I decided to switch routes after 20 years on the same mail route because I was tired of having to use my own vehicle and constantly dealing with repairs. A recently adjusted route had opened up in our office that used to be an auxiliary route but was adjusted to a 40K just 3 months earlier.  Even though I took a pay cut from my 45K route, I decided it was worth the 5 step drop in pay not having to worry about my vehicle breaking down on the route every day.

Volume on this new route has continued to increase since it was adjusted 3 months ago but much to my surprise, when I returned from my vacation, I was told that it had dropped down to a 37H and not only would my pay drop significantly but I would also be forced to work 6 days a week! Needless to say, I was not (and am not) happy about this and have filed a dispute with the USPS and a grievance with the NRLCA union.

This is not an isolated incident as I have been told that it has happened with other recently adjusted routes across the country. The issue is that the USPS is using 12 months of data for their mail counts but do not bother to take into consideration that 9 of those months involve only partial data since the route was an aux route for 75% of the mail count time period. 

This policy needs to be changed ASAP and even my management is in agreement about this.

For now, I need to wait to see how long the PO is going to drag this out but I will be asking for back pay for all of the time it takes between now and the resolving of the grievance. If you have had a similar experience, you need to reach out to your union rep/steward immediately and voice your concerns as I have done.