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.”

The entire decision can be read here.