The U.S. Postal Service is planning to eliminate 600 jobs from its headquarters, as part of an effort to trim about $1 billion in costs from the system over the next four years.
The jobs, which are non-union management positions, are slated to be eliminated by the end of September. They will be cut from headquarters-related field units as well as the Washington D.C., headquarters. The Service has already begun contacting affected employees.
“In private industry, this goes on day in and day out,” said Patrick Donahoe, senior vice president of human resources for the Postal Service. “We face a lot of those same competitions, so we’ve embarked on this task to cut costs.”
Donahoe said many of the jobs that consist of “repetitive tasks” have been slated to be replaced by technology, and the employees who fill them will be transferred to other positions. Attrition will claim others, he said. A number will choose early retirement, he added, although the postal service is not offering an incentive to encourage workers to choose early retirement.
When asked if the postal service would lay off workers, Donahoe said, “We are not that far down the road yet. If you get into a situation where the work is not necessary, you very well could get into a reduction of force situation. But the majority of the jobs [to be cut] are already vacant.”
The job-elimination effort is part of a larger initiative, announced in May by John Nolan, deputy postmaster general for the Service to cut 33% of the Service’s administrative staff.
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