Less than six months after a cyber data breach may have stolen thousands of postal employees personal information, USPS has posted a notice of its intent to modify the existing system of records (SOR), “Personnel Compensation and Payroll Records.”

USPS is proposing to modify a General Privacy Act System of Records (SOR) to support the sharing of employment and wage data with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for their Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program. The data will be used for the development of employment and wage estimates for over 800 occupations.

USPS revisions to privacy regulation will allow sharing of employees  data by employee name, Social Security Number, Employee Identification Number, occupation code, occupation title, or duty or pay location.

These revisions will become effective without further notice on April 1, 2015 unless comments received on or before that date result in a contrary determination.

Additional information

Pursuant to agreements that will protect the use of Postal Service data, the Postal Service intends to provide the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) with employment and wage data pertaining to USPS employees. These data are used in BLS’s OES program and, in conjunction with data obtained from the Office of Personnel Management, are used to develop employment and wage estimates.

The OES program produces employment and wage estimates for over 800 occupations. These estimates include the number of jobs in certain occupations and estimates of the wages paid to with respect to those jobs. Through its program, BLS maintains a comprehensive source of regularly produced occupational employment and wage information available for the nation as a whole, for individual States, and for metropolitan areas. OES data is used to develop information regarding current and projected employment needs, job opportunities, job placement aids, and state education and workforce development plans. Jobseekers can use OES data to analyze occupational wages and cost of living data by U.S area. Employment and wage estimate data are also used by academic and government researchers to study labor markets and wage and employment trends. BLS is now developing occupational employment and wage estimates and is requesting USPS occupational data which includes occupational titles and occupational codes.

Rationale for Changes to USPS Privacy Act Systems of Records

The Postal Service is proposing modifications to SOR 100.400. Categories of records is being amended to reflect that the Postal Service maintains a unique occupation code and an occupation title for each employee, as well as annual salary, hourly rate, and the Rate Schedule Code (RSC), which is used to identify an employee’s pay type. Pay type refers to any kind of wage that an employer is allotting to an employee. This can include, but is not limited to, holiday pay, overtime pay, annual leave pay, sick leave pay, severance pay, etc. Purpose is being modified to permit the Postal Service to maintain annual salary, hourly rate, and pay type information for the purpose of statistical research and reporting. The Postal Service is also adding a routine use explaining that the disclosure of these data may be made to BLS for the development of occupational estimates for federal employees. Retrievability is being revised to indicate the data can now be retrieved by occupation code and/or occupation title.

III. Description of Changes to Systems of Records

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES

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k. Disclosure of employment and wage data records about current Postal Service employees may be made to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for use in their Occupational Employment Statistics program for the purpose of developing estimates of the number of jobs in certain occupations, and estimates of the wages paid to them.

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RETRIEVABILITY

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By employee name, Social Security Number, Employee Identification Number, occupation code, occupation title, or duty or pay location.

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Stanley F. Mires,

Attorney, Federal Requirements.

See notice