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The USPS is repeatedly firing probationary workers who report injuries, feds claim
The U.S. Postal Service will have to compensate a probationary mail carrier in Oregon who was fired after reporting an on-the-job injury, a scenario that plays out all too frequently at the USPS, federal officials allege.
A federal judge has ordered the postal service to pay the worker $141,307 in lost wages and damages for emotional distress following a two-day trial, the Department of Labor announced on Wednesday.
The USPS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The U.S. Postal Service has fired probationary employees repeatedly after they reported workplace injuries,” Marc Pilotin, regional solicitor of labor in San Francisco, said in the release. “Employees and their families are harmed by these baseless terminations. In fact, the Oregon court found they caused ‘significant mental, emotional and financial stress’.”
Judge Adrienne Nelson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon found the postal service discriminated against and wrongfully terminated the carrier 21 days after they told their supervisor they had injured a leg near the end of their shift while unloading mail from a USPS truck. The worker was fired 11 days before the probationary period ended, the DOL said.
Since 2020, the department has filed nine federal lawsuits related to probationary workers fired by the USPS after reporting injuries in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington state. The DOL has also found a repeated pattern of similar actions during that time, resolving five related investigations in California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey, it said.
Three similar cases are awaiting trial against the USPS in Washington state, the agency added.
The DOL alleges that the USPS did not follow its policies in several cases, neglecting to provide timely evaluations of the workers. In the Oregon decision, Nelson determined the USPS’ failure to complete probationary reports offered “evidence of retaliatory intent,” the department said.
In a pending case, a court ordered the postal service to pay the labor department $37,222 for destroying text messages and throwing the personnel records of a probationary mail carrier into the garbage. And last year, a federal court in Tacoma, Washington, found the USPS retaliated against a probationary worker who reported a workplace injury.
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In the heart of downtown Clemson, South Carolina, the Shepherd Hotel is a community hub buzzing with locals and visitors. Like most hotels, the staff is what makes the difference. But here, the staff also makes it unique.
Around 30% of the staff have an intellectual disability. Workers make between $13 and $18 per hour including tips — far above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Nationwide, 16% of people with an intellectually disability are employed, according to a ThinkWork survey.
The Shepherd’s owner, Rick Hayduk, brought his vision of employing intellectually disabled people to life in part because two of his four children have Down syndrome.
“If we do our job right, someone leaves here inspired,” Hayduk said.
The hotel partnered with a program at nearby Clemson University called ClemsonLIFE. Students, including Hayduk’s daughter Jamison, not only take college courses, they also learn skills to help them live and work independently.
The program’s participants learn everything from time management and hygiene to banking and budgeting, according to program director Erica Walters. Nearly all of the graduates who have been through the program are employed. Plans are underway to open two similar hotels in South Carolina next year.
“We want to grow for the sake of inspiration and change,” Hayduk said.
The program is changing lives.
Alex Eveland, a recent graduate from ClemsonLIFE, is now employed as a server at the Shepherd Hotel. Eveland has Down syndrome, and as a child, doctors thought he would never walk or talk. Now he is working toward a hospitality certification and has dreams of opening his own restaurant one day.
“I have no time to have a bad day in life, because I want to tell people, people could do anything in life,” Eveland said.
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