Postal Service toughens whistleblower protections

As he prepares to leave his post on May 31, retiring Postmaster General William Henderson is planning to leave behind a system for uncovering waste, fraud and abuse at the Postal Service.

Last week, Henderson announced an initiative to strengthen whistleblower protections for postal employees, making them similar to safeguards that federal employees get under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

"We've been working with the Postal Service and Congress for four years to address this issue and I'm pleased that one of Postmaster General Henderson's final acts before leaving office was signing this important directive," said Postal Service Inspector General Karla Corcoran.

Details of the new policy are still being fine-tuned, but Postal Service officials plan to pursue changes to whistleblower protection policies and procedures to provide for the investigation of retaliation claims and resolution by an outside party if two sides can't resolve a claim.

"Postal employees have had whistleblower protection, but questions, reprisal complaints and resolutions have been [handled] in-house," said a spokeswoman for the Postal Service's Office of Inspector General. "Trying to get an independent decision-maker to make these decisions, for us, is a big thing."