Hrm 531 - Labor Laws and Unions: The United States Postal Service

Labor Laws and Unions: The United States Postal Service

Shannon Roundtree

HRM 531

August 15th, 2011

Les Colegrove

Founded in 1775, the United States Postal Service is responsible for providing postal services to customers in the United States (USPS, n.d.). "The United States Postal Service currently employs over 574,000 workers, and if it were a civilian company, it would be the second largest employer in the world after Wal-Mart" (USPS, n.d.).USPS promotes sustainability in which the company meets the needs of the present without compromising the future. Employees make a difference in every community around the country by providing fast, efficient, and safe mail delivery to customers.

Legal Issues and Obstacles

After the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, the United States Postal Service has been very cautious concerning processing and delivering mail to customers. Even though the company has mail restrictions, there a few issues the company still may encounter if the employees do not follow protocol properly. Mailing hazardous materials and mail fraud can be dangerous and deadly. Mailing hazardous materials is a violation of the federal law under the Occupation and Health Safety Act of 1970 (OSHA Act). "The ACT assigns two regulatory functions which are setting standards and conducting inspections to make sure that employees are providing safe and healthful work places, and adopting practices, means, methods, or processes necessary protect workers on the job" (Employment Law Guide, n.d.).

Mail fraud is a violation of federal law under the Department of Justice. This is very complex, because many customers can easily use someone else's address to ship their items. It also occurs when employees deliver mail to the wrong address, and the mail is not returned to the correct sender. Many companies are switching to the concept of the billing address must match the shipping address when placing orders online or over the phone to ensure mail fraud is not taking place. To minimize litigation it is important that USPS employees scan and process mail properly, checking for suspicious items that may be hazardous and make sure mail is delivered to the correct address.

Union Benefits of USPS Employees

Just like many other companies, the United States Postal Service is unionized. Many employees belong to the union NALC, which stands for The National Association of Letter Carriers. "The union defends the rights of letter carriers before abusive supervisors, unfair administrations, and indifferent congresses" (Join NALC, n.d). By becoming a member of NALC, employees benefit from