September 25, 2023 With election season around the corner, USPS is reminding employees of the do’s, don’ts and not-while-in-uniform rules of the Hatch Act, which limits political activity among the federal workforce. Postal Service employees may engage in the following activities while off duty, not in uniform, not in a Postal Service vehicle, and not…
August 30, 2023 The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) today announced a legal victory in its longstanding effort to obtain relief for a Maine Air National Guardsman who was wrongfully denied reinstatement in his Postal Service job following his post-9/11 military duty. Last week, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which adjudicates federal…
October 28, 2022 Like it does every election season, the Postal Service is reminding employees about the Hatch Act’s rules on misusing their government positions. The Hatch Act is a law that prohibits postal and other federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity while on duty, while wearing a uniform, while on federal property,…
The Postal Service is reminding employees that they are required to abide by the Hatch Act, including the guidelines for using social media. Here’s a quick recap of the law: • The Hatch Act exists to keep politics out of federal workplaces. The law, passed in 1939, limits certain political activities of federal and postal…
Issued July 30, 2019 To illustrate the importance of individuals coming forward to report waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct to Offices of Inspector General (OIG), we used the search function on Oversight.gov and identified many examples of OIG investigations, audits, and reviews initiated or advanced because of a whistleblower disclosure. We present a sample of…
WASHINGTON, D.C./April 25, 2019 – The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) today announced that it won a legal ruling forcing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to reinstate a National Guardsman in his civilian job following his post-9/11 military service. Under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) , employers must restore service…
By Ian Smith – August 2, 2018 OSC filed a complaint of Hatch Act violations with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) in March 2018 after the employee, a postal mail processing clerk, ran in two 2017 partisan elections. According to the complaint, the Hatch Act specifically prohibits USPS employees from running for election to…
The recently settled USPS case, which resulted in a 50-day suspension, illustrates prohibited social media activity. Between March and July 2016, an employee made at least 116 partisan political Facebook postings while on duty. Nearly all of the employee’s actions were in the form of a “share” posting from pro-Bernie Sanders, anti-Hillary Clinton, or anti-Donald…
