There are claims that some workers who deliver parcels for Australia Post are being paid less than the minimum wage and are not covered by worker’s compensation or superannuation.
Fiona Lawson claims she is owed almost $16,000 by the contractor who employed her and is planning to launch legal action in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.
IPSWICH, SD -
It could be months before the U.S. Postal Service reopens the post office building in a northeast South Dakota town.
The USPS has been offering service in Ipswich through temporary means since a problem with its rental building made it a safety hazard. During open hours, you’ll find a line of people outside a post office on wheels in the town.
"It’s unusual," Beverly Kilber said. "But it’s better than driving 50 miles to get our mail."
That’s what people with a post office box were first doing after the post office closed its doors and they had to drive to Aberdeen. A leaking roof and other damage lead to the closure. The USPS sent the mobile unit to town earlier this month.
Read more: KELOLAND.com | Post Office Problems.
The move by Canada Post did more than raise a few eyebrows.
Customers have been chirping up a storm over the decision by the country’s postal service to shut down local mail sorting in Prince Edward Island.
All mail now goes to Halifax for sorting by a machine instead of by human hands here in the province. That move was made along with having people now dropping letters into one central Canada Post red box, instead of having the old dual system of one for P.E.I. and one for the mail destined for the rest of Canada.
Read more: Canada Post assessing options to remain self-sustaining in digital age – Local – The Guardian.
A postal union leader has threatened a summer of industrial disruption and campaigning in a late attempt to halt the privatisation of Royal Mail.
Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, told the Financial Times the union was likely to order a boycott of deliveries of rival companies’ mail without calling a formal industrial action ballot.
That would, in effect, invite Royal Mail and private companies such as TNT Post and UK Mail to seek an injunction declaring the action, launched on the back of a less strict “consultative” ballot, unlawful. Otherwise it could result in up to half the nation’s mail going undelivered.
Read more: Postal union threatens disruption over Royal Mail privatisation – FT.com.
If Royal Mail were invented today it would deliver letters a couple of days a week and parcels every evening. Rather than returning home to a red "Sorry we missed you" card, Fred Bloggs could expect his Amazon delivery to arrive after he got home from work, and would file away the odd birthday card or tax documents that still dribbled in by post.
But Royal Mail – which was founded in 1516 – today still has to deliver letters to every household in the UK every day from Monday to Saturday, under the orders of Parliament.
Read more: Opposition in the post for Royal Mail sale – Business Analysis & Features – Business – The Independent.
Update: more details are available at Montgomery County Police Reporter
HOUSTON KTRK — Authorities believe they have found the body of a missing postal worker in San Jacinto County.Related Content
Eddie Youngblood, also known as ‘Marie,’ was using her Jeep to deliver mail in San Jacinto County yesterday. That burned out Jeep was later discovered on the side of Morris Creek Road near Coldspring.First responders found the car on fire after receiving a 911 call. It’s still not clear who made that call.
Read more: Body found in burned out Jeep in San Jacinto Co. believed to be missing postal worker | abc13.com.
US Postal Service Purchasing Specialist Gene Quarles has been sentenced to eighteen months in prison on bribery charges.
Quarles, 47, of Spotsylvania, Va., pleaded guilty in February to receiving thousands of dollars in bribes to use his position as a purchasing specialist for the United States Postal Service to obtain and facilitate contracts for a Maryland-based information technology firm.
Quarles pled guilty on Feb. 14, 2013, to bribery of a public official and faced a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
According to a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, Quarles worked for the United States Postal Service (USPS) since 2007. During the time in which he was accepting bribes, he served as a purchasing specialist, where he oversaw, evaluated, and managed USPS contracts relating to business mail entry and payment technologies.
In April 2010, officials with AH Computer Consulting, Inc. (AHCC), an international information technology consulting firm based in Rockville, Md., approached Quarles and offered to pay him bribes in exchange for various impermissible contracting preferences and advantages. Quarles accepted this offer, and from April 2010 through June 2012, AHCC employees paid Quarles numerous cash payments — totaling thousands of dollars — in exchange for Quarles’ providing advantages to AHCC during the USPS contracting process.
For example, Quarles provided AHCC with confidential USPS contracting information, including other vendors’ proposals and labor rates, so that AHCC could tailor its bids to what other potential contractors were bidding. Quarles also forwarded various private call-in numbers for conference calls between USPS officials, where official business was discussed, so that AHCC employees could anonymously listen in and get a leg-up on their competition. Quarles also allowed AHCC employees to complete surveys, evaluations, and other review materials in Quarles’ own name so that AHCC could obtain additional government contracts.
Quarles admitted that he used the bribe payments to pay for bills, rent, and other living expenses.
This case was investigated by the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorney Chad Golder from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia’s Financial Crimes and Public Corruption Unit is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
Inside those packages, birthday cards and bills, college applications, letters to loved ones and illegal drugs. Those drugs end up in our community.
It doesn’t want to be a drug courier, but it happens. The U.S. Postal Service is seeing an increase in the number of people trying to mail illegal drugs. But there’s also an increase in the number of people being caught too. From 2006 to 2011, nationwide there was a 371% jump in the number of people sending packages with illegal drugs inside.
News10NBC’s Janet Lomax sat down with a man whose job is to catch these criminals. She wanted to know how many of them are trying to use the U.S. Mail to deliver drugs in our area.
Read more: Mailing illegal drugs | www.WHEC.com.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Two men accused of stealing checks, credit cards and other items from local mailboxes using counterfeit U.S. Postal Service keys, are scheduled to be arraigned by a federal magistrate judge this afternoon, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.
Derrick F. Hutson, 42, and Marshal R. Stapleton, 27, both of Las Vegas, are scheduled to appear at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 16, 2013, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. McQuaid, Jr. They are charged with conspiracy, possession of stolen mail and unauthorized possession of counterfeit U.S. Postal Service keys.
According to the criminal complaint dated April 23, 2013, United States Postal Service employees recently received reports of several incidents of mail theft in the Summerlin and Northwest areas of Las Vegas. The reports indicated that entire contents of mailboxes had been removed from cluster-type mailboxes, but that no damage had occurred to the mailboxes indicating the use of a counterfeit key. Following an investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Hutson and Stapleton were apprehended on April 15, 2013, at approximately 2:20 a.m. while they were sitting in a vehicle parked next to a cluster mail box in a Summerlin-area community. Postal Inspectors recovered from the vehicle counterfeit U.S. Postal Service keys and burglary tools. Postal Inspectors later recovered from their homes, stolen U.S. Postal Service mailbox locks and parts, counterfeit keys, counterfeit identity documents, credit card manufacturing devices, check software, and stolen mail.
The criminal indictment charges that between January and April 23, 2013, Hutson and Stapleton made and possessed counterfeit U.S. Post Office keys which they used to steal checks, gift cards, debit cards, credit cards, and other items from mailboxes in Las Vegas.
If convicted, Hutson and Stapleton face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy and stolen mail charges and up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the counterfeit key charges. They are currently in federal custody pending their arraignment tomorrow.
The case is being investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Pugh.
Today’s announcement is part of efforts underway by President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF) which was created in November 2009 to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices and state and local partners, it’s the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud. Since its formation, the task force has made great strides in facilitating increased investigation and prosecution of financial crimes; enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal, state and local authorities; addressing discrimination in the lending and financial markets and conducting outreach to the public, victims, financial institutions and other organizations. Over the past three fiscal years, the Justice Department has filed more than 10,000 financial fraud cases against nearly 15,000 defendants including more than 2,700 mortgage fraud defendants. For more information on the task force, visit www.stopfraud.gov
WECT TV6-WECT.com:News, weather
WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – A United States Postal Service transportation vehicle caught fire along Highway 74/76 in Columbus County, damaging and destroying some mail.
The driver reported that there was an engine fire Wednesday night, while he was transporting mail collected from two offices in Leland.
Officials said the truck had collected mail from the Leland Post Office and a contract postal unit in Leland. Customers who sent letter mail and/or packages from either postal location in Leland, NC are being asked to contact the Consumer Affairs Office at 704-424-4422.
