Postal Worker Fired for Violating USPS Zero Tolerance Policy
The postal worker, a preference eligible PS-05 Maintenance Mechanic in North Houston, Texas was removed from his position for making threatening remarks against a supervisor in the presence of two co-workers. The Postal Service charged him with “Improper Conduct/Violation of the Zero Tolerance Policy on Violence in the Work Place (PDF).”
The incident leading to his removal occurred after the postal worker attended a meeting with postal management regarding his alleged harassment of a female supervisor.. At the meeting, the management instructed employee to stop giving the Supervisor gifts and to leave her alone. The postal workert allegedly left the meeting and said in the presence of two co-workers that he felt like “getting [his] gun and shooting up the place.” He also allegedly stated to another employee, “I am not going to let some woman make me lose my job and I feel like killing her.”
The postal worker challenged his removal claiming the evidence did not show that the individual that heard the statements felt threatened or that he intended to harm anyone. The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) found that the “Zero Tolerance Policy” only requires that the employee utter an “actual, implied or veiled threat, made seriously or in jest,” not that any listener actually felt threatened. The MSPB concluded that the employee’s statements constituted a violation of the policy and affirmed the Postal Service’s removal finding it to be within the bounds of reasonableness. Wiley vs. United States Postal Service, July 11, 2006
Related link:
Joint Statement On Violence and Behavior in the Workplace - NALC, other postal unions, (note: American Postal Workers Union was not a party to the signing) the Postal Service three postal supervisors’ organizations created and signed the Joint Statement on Violence and Behavior in the Workplace in February, 1992. They drafted the statement at a meeting of NALC, other postal unions, USPS and three postal supervisors’ organizations held in the wake of tragic shootings of postal workers in Royal Oak, Michigan in November 1991.
July 27th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Interesting.We had a transportation manager here tell a driver he had something in his car that would take care of him,and the PI”S found out he did!A loaded pistol.He is not a PTF but that ckeck just keeps on coming.It is not zero tolerance,it is selective amnesia tolerance.
July 27th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
and the blob is right. the main problem is that postal management ultimately does what it wants case by case with NO consistency and the oig or inspectors can’t recommend a resolution only report the facts. maybe these performance objectives that reward management with big checks for lowering the amount of arbitrations is to blame. some areas like threats you describe should be off limits to such performance objective criteria.
September 30th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
When the po uses satellite voice transmitters
on floor to create incidences the whole system
has failed…las vegas nevada…..
November 20th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
kind of funny how supv seem to get away with things such as stealing, delaying mail and sexual harassment, they just seem to get transferred to another station cause the district management that hired these idiots don’t want to get implicated with guilt by association……zero tolerence doesn’t apply to management at all
November 29th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
jackson - A PI investigation concludes with an IM (investigative memorandum). The report details their findings and often includes a recommendation of disipline based on how severe the charge. Only the postmaster or plant manager can issue a removal. The district manager can have HR prepare the letter but the PM must issue it. I downgraded a level 21 PM to a level 13 PM for failure to perform his duties as he was afraid to issue a removal after years of a carrier screwing up. Six months later a female OIC not only removed the slug for different charges but the new charges were criminal which permitted the carrier to get a little jail time too. His wife divorced him before he was released from jail. Oh, what a wonderful web he tangled!
December 1st, 2006 at 4:00 am
the IM cannot recommend discipline. However, the IM can conclude if the employee’s conduct was criminal and state the statue which was violated.
December 24th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
It is well known amoung craft employees that we are held to one set of rules and managers by another. back in the earlt 90’s when I first started a suervisor was found to have a gun on the work room floor, nothing done about a week later two mail handlers got into an argument and one picked up a very dangerous plastic knife, they wanted to fire him. Once the Union brought the gun incident nothing happened.
January 27th, 2007 at 7:47 am
POSTAL MANAGEMENT SUCKS EVERYWHERE….IS THERE NOT ONE FRICKIN DECENT SUPERVISOR. THEY ARE OUT OF CONTROL. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING RECORD EVERYTHING.
June 27th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I agree with Denver………Management sucks!!! …our supervisor is terrible…..she has her own 6 friends on the floor and some favorite rca’s. Most of the time she just go from one station to another of her favorite rca and gossips and tell her whole damn life. Not to mention she is really rude and mean!!! ….favoritism is her “forte”….
August 19th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Supervisor created hostile work environment by instigating employee against the shop steward.
August 19th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
It’s not that they suck for the sake of sucking, it’s the bigger idiots over them that sanction everything they do. this is how they make their big bucks, by the sweat off our backs and the hard work we put in so they shine, move up the ranks and collect their fortunes in the higher anarchy of management
October 9th, 2007 at 11:04 am
real pretty!!
October 28th, 2007 at 7:46 am
In my facility there has been ongoing harassment of 2 female employees for over a year by a small group of male employees-documented and witnessed by 2 different union reps as well as co-workers. No action taken aside from a short talking to by management on the workroom floor within hearing of everyone making the situation worse.
One of the harassers told one of the women that she had better watch her back while pinning her in a corner with a forklift-this happened in front of a supervisor who then just walked away…