Postal Service Needs Stricter Control Over Employee Absences

Gao ID: GGD-82-58 May 21, 1982

GAO undertook this review to determine how the Postal Service could increase the availability of its work force during scheduled work hours and to identify the consequences of employee absences.

GAO found that supervisors generally are not effective in controlling absences. They do not keep good records and fail to identify numerous employees with attendance problems. These tasks are made more difficult by frequent work location changes. GAO found that time away from work averaged about 50 days a year per employee. About 40 days were paid absences at an annual cost of $3,000 per employee. The other 10 days were unpaid absences. Absence control is emphasized by postal management and the paid leave rate of 40 days is comparable to the rate experienced by other Federal agencies. GAO found that the total extent of unscheduled absences was not being monitored by management.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Arnold P. Jones Team: General Accounting Office: General Government Division Phone: (202) 512-7797


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