WASHINGTON — More than 45,000 rural postal service carriers will receive their salary through money orders after a payroll glitch Friday.
According to the United States Postal Service, a programming issue within the agency's payroll system impacted some rural carriers' paychecks that were set to be issued on Sept. 1.
The National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (NRLCA), the union that represents rural letter carriers, called the glitch an "egregious payroll error." The union says more than 45,000 rural letter carriers were impacted by the programming issue.
USPS said the agency has taken immediate steps to make sure employees will be paid through a salary advance in the form of a money order.
NRLCA says all impacted carriers will receive 65% of their gross pay, a number that calculates closely to the average net take home. Since the money order is a salary advance, workers will need to pay it back but not until USPS has repaid them the correct amount, according to the union.
"All offices are being made aware this is NOT optional and to have plenty of money orders on hand," NRLCA said in a statement. "There are over 45,000 rural carriers who have missing or partial checks; it is absolutely NOT acceptable."
USPS said in a statement to WUSA9 that the programming issue has been identified and fixed:
"The Postal Service identified a programming issue within its payroll system that impacted some rural carriers paychecks to be issued on September 1, 2023. We have taken immediate steps to ensure employees will be paid through a salary advance in the form of a no-fee money order. The programming issue has been identified and remediated."