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90-Year-Old Post Office Workers Still Getting Workers Comp?
Written By : Warner Todd Huston

Years after most Americans retire, in fact years after the federal retirement age of 68, more than 100 U.S. Postal Workers in their 90s are still getting 75 percent of their salaries (tax free, yet) of federal workers compensation payments instead of having been graduated to the cheaper retirement payments at 60 percent of their salaries.

This is classic government waste.

Jim McElhatton of the Washington Times gives us this tale of government foolishness and waste as Senator Susan Collins (R, Maine) scolds the Post Office for its failed administration of the issue.

Collins notes that over 80 percent of the Post Office budget goes to pay the work force. Not being a titan of business I cannot say for sure, but that seems a high percentage to me. In any case, Collins relates some alarming wasteful spending where it concerns workers comp and retirement benefits for the Postal Service.

“At the Postal Service, more than 1,000 employees currently receiving workers compensation benefits are 80 years or older,” she said. “Incredibly, 132 of these individuals are 90 years of age and older and there are three who are 98.”

The Washington Times has more information that you should check out, but the reason that these people are still getting such high payments into the 80s and 90s is because… they chose to get paid more.

You heard that right. Due to federal rules as forced upon them by unions a federal worker is allowed to choose whether he keeps getting paid the higher amount under workers comp or go into the retirement benefits at lower compensation. No wonder these guys stay at the higher rate of pay. Who would consciously choose to cut his own salary?

It’s hard to blame the worker, at this point. No what the real problem is happens to be the stupidity of the system.

It’s all pretty obscene. There is no reason whatsoever that any federal worker should still be getting workers comp once they’ve aged beyond the retirement age. It shouldn’t matter at all why they were on workers comp in the first place, once they reach retirement age they should be immediately placed into the retirement phase of their benefits. Period.

This is just another example of the waste of our government.

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  • Good Ol Boy

    “..once they reach retirement age they should be immediately placed into the retirement phase of their benefits. Period.”

    Perfectly stated, sir. I look forward to seeing any of our resident libs attempt to argue against this point.

  • Anonymous

    Yes but would closing this loophole solve our entire deficit problem for this year while paying off the whole national debt within 2 years?

    If not then it isn’t even worth considering and you’re just being petty and mean.

    • http://twitter.com/warnerthuston warnerthuston

      I hope that is sarcasm.

      • Anonymous

        Yup.

        There’s been a troll on here lately complaining about any posts regarding wasteful spending on the grounds of ‘well cutting this out of the budget won’t solve ALL our problems so why bother even talking about it?’

        • http://twitter.com/warnerthuston warnerthuston

          Good. I thought it sarcasm was but I wanted to be sure.

      • Anonymous

        Yup.

        There’s been a troll on here lately complaining about any posts regarding wasteful spending on the grounds of ‘well cutting this out of the budget won’t solve ALL our problems so why bother even talking about it?’

  • http://conservativebootcamp.com Martin Hale

    Collins notes that over 80 percent of the Post Office budget goes to pay the work force. Not being a titan of business I cannot say for sure, but that seems a high percentage to me.

    It doesn’t look high to me. It’s a general rule of thumb that even in the most equipment/resource intensive of businesses, labour will always represent the largest line item on the expense sheet. Most people would agree that the total cost of labour is minimally 50 pct. of businesses’ expenses. But for most it’s higher than that.

    Personally, in all the years of consulting I did, I never saw a business in which the total cost of labour was less than 60 pct. of their total expenses. In a service business model, such as postal delivery, it wasn’t unusual to find that the total cost of labour was 80 pct. or more, of the total expenses.

    The reason I keep referring to the total cost of labour is that people often forget is that there are substantial indirect labour costs above and beyond wages – benefits, pension/savings programmes, various insurances, payroll taxes, employee recruitment, labour-related legal expenses, training, etc. It’s not unusual for all of those additional costs to run more than 30% of the actual wage bill, meaning that the total cost of labour might well be 130 to 135 pct. of the wage line item on the balance sheet.

    But whatever the cost as a percentage, there’s little excuse for the management of the USPS to have agreed with their union to allow this practice to continue. If the management of the USPS were as on top of their business as I’m sure they think they are, they would draw a line in the sand during collective bargaining over issues like this one. And if the unions really had the interest of the organisation at which their members work in mind at all, they’d agree that this is an expensive and needless practice.

    I don’t know who’s worse, to be honest.

    • Anonymous

      They’re currently in the hole about 240 billion dollars.

      I wouldn’t mind seeing them be allowed to collapse. File bankruptcy and let them come back after renegotiating benefits.

      That won’t ever happen of course. But that’s what needs to be done to prevent them from being permanently in the red.

      • Mahatma

        There’s a brilliant idea. Then UPS and FedEx can quadruple their rates.

        • Anonymous

          Interesting thought.

          So the USPS is what is keeping Fedex and UPS and others cheap and efficient? By that reasoning then it must be cheaper to ship via the post office than any private enterprise. Because if it is more expensive then they in fact are not forcing prices down on shipping.

          Care to take the bet that the price and quality of shipping at the USPS is vastly superior to any private enterprise?

    • http://twitter.com/warnerthuston warnerthuston

      Thanks for that info, Martin. I had a vague thought that it shouldn’t be higher than 70% especially in a business relying on trucking. Glad to know this info.

  • Jim

    Check out Bonneville Power Administation http://www.bpa.gov

    A Federal Government agency which debunks the myth fostered by Warner Todd Huston who claims that “Government does not and cannot make money. All government can do successfully is take money away from people, waste that money, and in exchange offer badly run programs that ill serve the people.”

    BPA operates and maintains the largest bulk electric system in the Pacific Northwest. BPA delivers electric energy at a profit to customers in Washngton, Oregon, California , Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming who are standing in line to gain access to that electrical energy because it is so reliable and is priced at such a bargain.

    • http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

      No that doesn’t debunk the myth Hoggo, it just proves to be one very small exception to the general rule.

      • Jim

        Then Huston needs to learn to modify his generaliized accusations when there are exceptions to those generalized comments. Aka: “Most or nearly all government does not……………….”

        Use of broad stroke generalizations to flock shoot a whole category when exceptions exist only indicates that the commentator has not studied the subject in depth and that his accusations should therefore be taken with a grain of salt.

        • http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

          Hoggo when you have hundreds of thousands even millions of government programs in the US, some exceptions are bound to happen, don’t be such a moron. The VAST majority of these plans do not show a profit, and are riddled with corruption or mismanagement. As in his primary example of the USPS. When you post with 100% accuracy in your rants you can begin criticizing, until then use brain for more than keeping your skull from caving in.

          • Mahatma

            The VAST majority of these plans do not show a profit, and are riddled with corruption or mismanagement. speaking of morons, Pvt Pyle, I’m sure you have facts to back up your excrement? I have had nothing but positive experiences with the USPS. Isn’t amazing you can mail a letter and have it arrive in Seattle for $.46?

          • Anonymous

            “I have had nothing but positive experiences with the USPS”

            Bwahahahaha. Now we know you’re lying. Never had a bad experience at the post office? Next to the DMV they are the poster child of awful government that we have to deal with on a regular basis.

            “Isn’t amazing you can mail a letter and have it arrive in Seattle for $.46? ”

            I can email it for free and have it arrive in seconds.

            The USPS had it’s day, now it mostly exists as an intermediary for junk mail (company -> USPS -> annoyed homeowner -> dumpster). It’s outdated. For letters we have email, or at least faxes. For boxes we have other services that are more efficient. The only purpose they serve is to provide for distant houses that would otherwise not be covered. So the logical thing would be to cut down to bare-bones service and only serve those people who would otherwise be completely without service and ending junk mail shipments.

            Right now they’re just hastening the death of gaia (shuffling paper about, generating trash, using gas to move it all around, etc)! You shouldn’t stand for it.

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