This started as a letter to Inspector General David C. Williams of the U. S. Postal Service.
Then it occurred that the travesty of justice described below is too serious to be dealt with as a single incident. This is a growing, systemic issue so egregious that I'm sure the OIG is aware of it. It is a looming threat to the American people that needs to be dragged into the light.
I recently found out that a friend was the victim of repeated instances of forced labor and time fraud committed by her manager in the U.S. Postal Service.
I was shocked, but not alarmed. I thought I could contact the OIG's office and have it taken care of. I was certain the OIG would be anxious to investigate and get the offending culprit out of their midst. To my amazement, it not only took two reports, but over a month before I was even contacted.
When I explained to the OIG inspector, Special Agent Reid Robbins, that a postal manager was forcing an employee to work between four and six hours a day without pay, and was committing fraud by falsifying a government document and changing the employee’s official clock rings to reflect a three-hour lunch, I was essentially met with a yawn.
“Who are you?” he asked. “How do you know this employee?”
After an interrogation to determine whether I had a right to not mind my own business, Agent Robbins said the OIG’s office generally does not investigate time issues. This was a blatant lie. They just don’t investigate it when the government is doing the stealing.
What kind of crime fighting organization doesn’t fight crime? The Postal Inspection Service investigates external crimes against the postal service. The Office of Inspector General investigates crimes within the postal service. If the OIG doesn’t investigate intimidation and coercion, the OIG must not consider employee abuse a crime.
I attempted to contact Agent Robbins at the number he provided, but he failed to return my calls on six attempts. I left a message on his voice mail asking him:
1) Whose office would handle the matter if the situation were reversed and the employee worked only eight hours and falsified her time to be paid for 12?
2) Whose office would handle the falsification of government documents? Finally, will he investigate the matter? Will anyone be held accountable?
I have yet to receive a response.
It doesn't stop there. The next day the employee involved called to advise me that Agent Robbins had contacted her. She said he seemed more interested in how she knew me than the crime against her. She said his tone was aggressive and intimidating. He told her that when she accepted the job of acting supervisor, working overtime without pay came with the job, another lie.
The National Assn. of Postal Supervisors advised me that a certified supervisor can be required to work a maximum of 30 minutes without pay (in emergencies). But acting supervisors, covered under various craft employee contracts, must be paid for every minute they work.
We know this is accurate. Otherwise, it would not have been necessary for the manager to falsify government documents to achieve her objective, to rob the employee.
Worse than giving the employee inaccurate information and failing to investigate the complaint, Agent Robbins revealed both the complaint and the nature of the complaint — confidential information — to postal management.
As a direct result, this highly productive employee who has held the same position for over 21 years — longer in the same position than any other supervisor, manager or postmaster in the Los Angeles district — has been demoted by a manager who didn’t even entered the postal service until six years after the employee had become a supervisor.
While the manager, who had recently been demoted from area manager herself, was informing the employee of her demotion, she allegedly commented to the employee, “I just want you to see how it feels when the postal service doesn't app”
What? Was the manager saying she wanted the employee to suffer because she had suffered an injustice?
In the interest of full disclosure, I became personally (but objectively) involved in this matter because I know it to be particularly egregious. It speaks directly to an issue that I've been addressing in many columns, the negative impact of America’s new business model on the middle class (http://wattree.blogspot.com/2009/12/role-of-poor-minorities-and-middle.html).
The facts in this case demonstrate the business community’s full-throated assault on the America middle class.
The character of the manager and agencies mandated to protect the rights of the employee are revealed through the facts in this case, but what about the character of the employee?
Employee Background
I became involved when the employee, Ms. Joann Snow, was acting unusually depressed.
I became concerned because I have known her for over 25 years. What makes her unique is her bubbly, life's-a-bowl-of-cherries personality. Everybody loves her, especially in her workplace. Her superiors depended upon her because of her can-do, Type-A personality. Subordinates would seek her out for counsel, knowing she would do the right thing, making sure they were properly paid or doing battle on their behalf with their immediate supervisors.
She would donate her vacation leave each year to employees who became ill and ran out of sick leave. She never found the time to take a vacation herself.
This woman was so highly depended upon by her superiors and dedicated to her job that for years she was working seven days a week just to cover their backs against any oversights. Since she had been in her current position for over 21 years, probably longer in one position than any other supervisor in the district, when the administrators needed any information, they would go to Ms. Snow.
At this writing, Ms. Snow has voluntarily postponed a long needed vacation to train her own replacement so the postal service and the people they serve won’t be negatively impacted by her departure. I asked her if she was insane. She lives by a different code of moral responsibility than I do.
That answers the question of why our government, and particularly the postal service, is so dysfunctional. The wrong people are in positions of responsibility.
OIG Response
Agent Robbins handled the matter atrociously. He also made an additional error, thinking I was an employee reporting an injustice committed against a friend. That is partially true. I am a former employee reporting an injustice committed against a friend. I also am a journalist.
I write a political column for several publications across the country, including the Los Angeles Sentinel and the Black Star News in New York, two of the most prestigious publications serving the Black community in the country.
I am a staff writer for Veterans Today, a publication whose reach spans the globe. VT will be interested in this case, because not only does government corruption and the assault on the middle class have a negative impact on returning veterans, but Ms. Snow’s only son is a Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force. While he is off defending this nation, his government is robbing and abusing his single mother.
I intend to put both the postal service, and the indifference of the OIG’s office on severe blast across this country. I intend to move hell and earth to see that this issue ends up on President Obama’s desk.
This sort of institutional crime is not representative of America. Both of these government agencies are guilty of reckless, unconscionable behavior, failing to carrying out their mandates to protect the rights of the American people.
This is not an isolated attack against one postal employee, rather an institutional attack on the middle class. It is in direct response to a new business model brought on by a global economy and the new world order.If we fail to fight back, it will come knocking at all of our doors.
Part two will address the negative impact that this criminal behavior is having on the postal service’s ability to deliver the mail.
To All Postal Employees
If you are aware of any instances of time fraud being committed by the postal service, please contact me at Ewattree@Gmail.com. Giving in to intimidation is not an option. It will get worse. We must shine light on this increasingly routine business practice.
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree@verizon.net
You may learn more about Mr. Wattree at wattree.blogspot.com
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