Statement from the National Rural Letter Carriers Association:

The NRLCA has learned about an egregious payroll error this pay period affecting more than 45,000 rural carriers. We have had multiple discussions with the USPS yesterday and into the night. All affected carriers will be entitled to salary advances on Friday.

The proper amounts of what carriers should be paid will be sent to the offices so local managers will not have to attempt to calculate it; they simply need to process the salary advance on a money order, so rural carriers get paid on Friday.

We are demanding that this process is completed without any carrier being hassled or asked to forgo the salary advance. All offices are being made aware this is NOT optional and to have plenty of money orders on hand. There are over 45,000 rural carriers who have missing or partial checks; it is absolutely NOT acceptable. According to the USPS, the issue that caused this problem has been located and a fix is already in process, so this will not happen again.

All impacted carriers will receive 65% of their gross pay, that number calculates closely to the average net take home. Rural carriers will not be required to pay it back until the Postal Service has repaid them the correct amount. Please remember, while we understand carriers have done 100% of the work, the “take home pay” is not 100% of the gross pay.Unfortunately, while the NRLCA has attempted to bargain for 100% of EMA to be paid as that is a reimbursement for the use of carriers’ privately owned vehicles that has already occurred, that is not currently a contractual right. It will certainly be an issue for collective bargaining as we move forward into contract negotiations.