VERIFYING what kinds of gifts postal carriers can accept

The holiday season is the time of year when many people are feeling generous and look to show their appreciation to people around them.

Some people look to extend that generosity to their local postal worker to thank them for delivering their mail everyday. VERIFY reader Rod emailed us to ask if postal carriers can legally accept gifts.

THE QUESTION

Can postal workers accept gifts?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

Postal workers can only accept small, non-monetary gifts.

WHAT WE FOUND

United States Postal Service (USPS) carriers are allowed to accept some gifts from customers, although the kinds of gifts they can accept and the value of those gifts are limited.

“Carriers are permitted to accept a gift worth $20 or less from a customer per occasion, such as Christmas,” a USPS webpage about its employee tipping and gift-receiving policy says. “However, cash and cash equivalents, such as checks or gift cards that can be exchanged for cash, must never be accepted in any amount. Furthermore, no employee may accept more than $50 worth of gifts from any one customer in any one calendar year period.”

A postal carrier could accept a gift card to a restaurant or coffee chain, according to an example in the “Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch,” a U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) document that outlines the rules for federal employees, such as postal workers.

But the OGE ethics guide also explains that a federal employee would not be allowed to accept a gift card issued by a credit card company or bank “because such a card is equivalent to a gift of cash.”

The OGE says federal employees should promote the public’s trust that they’re meeting the “responsibility to the United States and its citizens to place loyalty to the Constitution, laws, and ethical principles above private gain.” An employee may therefore consider declining an otherwise permissible gift if they believe a reasonable person would “question the employee’s integrity or impartiality as a result of accepting the gift.”

Postal carriers and other federal employees may accept any gift given by family members or personal friends if it’s clear that the gift is being given because of that relationship and not because of the employee’s position.

The OGE’s definition of gift excludes “modest items of food and non-alcoholic refreshments, such as soft drinks, coffee and donuts, offered other than as part of a meal” and greeting cards.