Senators Call on USPS to Delay Controversial Pay Cut for Rural Carriers Determined By Mystery Algorithm

Six Democratic senators urged the USPS to delay implementing a controversial algorithmically-generated pay system on Friday that will slash the salaries of two-thirds of rural letter carriers until the system’s “serious flaws” are rectified.

The new pay system, called the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System (RRECS), has been years in the making and is the result of an arbitrator decision on how to more efficiently calculate rural carrier pay, which is based on annual estimates of how long it takes to deliver the mail on that specific route, as Motherboard reported last month. 

Under RRECS, carriers must log hundreds of actions they take every single day and carry a scanner with them at all times as it tracks their movements to evaluate workloads, down to minute details such as whether they have to deliver a package to a mailbox or a door. In the plethora of online discussions by rural carriers about RRECS, many carriers reported receiving little to no training on how to properly use this new system in a way that would accurately capture their workload and, therefore, pay, likely resulting in widespread under-reporting of workloads. 

As a result, 66 percent of rural carriers are slated for pay cuts, with 44 percent of carriers losing more than three paid hours per week, despite nothing having changed about their actual routes. The USPS has not disclosed either publicly or to the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the union representing rural carriers, how the RRECS algorithms actually work. This pay cut is likely to exacerbate an already short-handed workforce of rural carriers which has left many rural communities struggling to reliably get mail and packages.

RRECS implementation has been repeatedly delayed, but carriers are bracing for it to go into effect starting next week. The letter, signed by Senators Ron Wyden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, John Fetterman, and Ed Markey, calls on USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to delay its implementation until its problems can be fixed.

“We understand the need to update the rural letter carrier route evaluation system and ensure that rural carriers are compensated for labor that has gone unaccounted for under the current system,” the letter states. “However, RRECS is not narrowly tailored to address these problems and is reportedly rife with glaring flaws in its implementation and training for its adoption. RRECS imposes an intense system of worker surveillance on rural carriers that requires them to log every tiny task of their daily routes using devices that frequently malfunction.”

In addition to calling for a delay, the senators asked DeJoy if the USPS will publicly disclose the algorithms behind RRECS and promise to limit the surveillance technology implemented to only that required to evaluate routes.

USPS spokesperson Darlene Casey said, “The compensation system for rural letter carriers is a nationally negotiated pay system codified in the parties’ National Agreement. The current modifications to the compensation system were the result of a previous interest arbitration proceeding and mandated by an interest arbitrator. The parties worked jointly for years to implement these new provisions and will continue to share data and information throughout the implementation process.” Casey added the USPS will respond to the senators’ letter.