September 25, 2024
Arbitrator Nolan renders decision on national-level LiteBlue hack grievance
On July 12, 2023, President Renfroe initiated a national-level
grievance related to the theft of letter carrier wages by cybercriminals
who were able to access the USPS Human Resources website, LiteBlue. The
issue in this case involved incidents that occurred in late 2022 and
early 2023. Hundreds of postal employees, which included letter
carriers, fell victim to hackers who were able to access their LiteBlue
accounts using dubious tactics. Employee account information was
obtained when employees entered their login information into fake
LiteBlue websites created by criminals. As a result, these letter
carriers had their paychecks misdirected into bank accounts owned by the
criminals.
Earlier this year, on Jan. 23 and 24, this case was heard by National
Arbitrator Dennis R. Nolan in Washington, DC. Since employees
represented by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and the National
Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) were victims of the theft as well,
both unions intervened and presented their cases before Arbitrator
Nolan.
At the hearing, NALC’s counsel outlined the numerous contractual
violations the Postal Service had committed when it failed to ensure
that letter carriers were paid for their time on the clock.
Additionally, arguments were made outlining the Postal Service’s failure
to protect its systems from hackers when it did not institute the use
of multifactor authentication (MFA) until after the attacks occurred.
Post-hearing briefs were submitted to Arbitrator Nolan by all parties in
mid-April.
Arbitrator Nolan denied NALC’s grievance. In his award, he posed the
questions, “What do the parties mean by the employer’s obligation to
“pay” employees? Is it enough to make a direct deposit in the bank
account on record, or must the Postal Service take further steps to make
sure the employees actually receive the direct deposit money? To put it
differently, may the Postal Service simply act on the banking
information it has or must it act as a guarantor for employees
victimized by cyber criminals?”
Arbitrator Nolan opined, “The term “pay” is ambiguous. It could
fairly be applied either way. To prevail, however, the Union has to
prove that its interpretation is superior to that of the Postal Service —
that the Postal Service actually violated some provision of the
Agreement. The Union failed to do so. The grievance must therefore be
denied.” He ended his award with, “The Union failed to prove that the
Postal Service violated any specific provision of the National Agreement
by failing to pay employees after unauthorized access to LiteBlue
resulted in changes to direct deposit information.”
