The U.S. Postal Service- USPS is offering thousands of employees cash incentives to retire or resign by the end of this fiscal year.
The incentive package, negotiated with unions, would give eligible employees $10,000 during the first three months of fiscal year 2010, which begins Oct. 1 and another $5,000 during the first quarter of fiscal 2011, 30,000 employees are eligible.
The offer was not extended to postal carriers represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association.
The postal service employs more than 656,000 workers nationwide.
The offer is the latest in a series of cost reductions the USPS has made this year to trim more than $6 billion from its budget.
A hiring freeze is also in place and management salaries have been frozen. The post office has also cut more than 100 million work hours since the fiscal year started last Oct. 1. It’s stopped construction of new facilities and closed six district offices, along with other steps.
USPS is also considering closing as many as 1,000 offices across the country to cut expenses.
Management negotiated an agreement with two of its unions to offer certain employees $15,000 to retire or resign before the end of the fiscal year.
The USPS announced on August 5 a net loss of 2.4 billion dollars in its third quarter ending June 30.
