{"id":22117,"date":"2021-09-21T19:18:01","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T19:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/09\/21\/injuries-are-higher-among-nonpermanent-postal-employees\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:53:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:53:48","slug":"injuries-are-higher-among-nonpermanent-postal-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/federal-oversight\/watchdogs\/2021\/09\/21\/injuries-are-higher-among-nonpermanent-postal-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Injuries are higher among nonpermanent postal employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Non-career employees at the U.S. Postal Service are significantly more likely to get injured on the job and leave their positions than employees with a permanent status, according to a Sept. 16 Government Accountability Office report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees without permanent status at USPS receive lower pay and fewer benefits than their career counterparts, often under the assumption that they will have a path to a career position in the future. But according to GAO, those non-career employees, of which there are more than 200,000 across the U.S., had 50 percent higher rates of injury<\/a> than career positions and reported the incidents to the Federal Employees\u2019 Compensation Program 43 percent more often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRepresentatives of postal unions and management associations, as well as USPS, told us that these higher injury rates, at least in part, can be attributed to the fact that non-career employees are often new. Specifically, officials from four of the six postal employee groups we interviewed noted that newer employees \u2014 who are almost all non-career \u2014 have less experience on the job, which can lead to injuries,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe conducted regression analyses to control for a variety of factors that may affect injury rates, including tenure, age, health insurance, occupation type, overtime work, night work, and postal facility. We found that status as a non-career employee was associated with a 22 percent higher rate of reported injuries and a 16 percent higher rate of FECA [Federal Employees\u2019 Compensation Act] injuries when we controlled for those factors. As a result, it is likely that features of the non-career position contribute to higher injury rates among non-career employees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t