USPS Moves Processing of Employees FMLA Requests to Human Resources Center
The Human Resources Shared Services Center (HRSSC) began processing Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requests for employees of 23 districts and headquarters July 11. FMLA processing for all other districts nationwide will transition to HRSSC Sept. 10. Read more
APWU Encourages Members to Use DOL Forms For FMLA Leave Requests
The APWU is encouraging members to use Department of Labor forms when requesting Family & Medical Leave, while the union pursues a dispute with the Postal Service over employees’ right to use APWU forms or other equivalent documentation.
In a Dec. 17, 2010, memo [PDF] to local, state, and national union officers, Mike Morris, director of Industrial Relations, wrote that the APWU continues to assert that use of Department of Labor (DOL) forms are optional. Under the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA), medical certification provided in any format must be accepted, as long as it contains all of the information required under the law, he said.
Despite the APWU’s position, Morris said, the union is encouraging employees to use the DOL Forms WH-380E [PDF] and WH-380F [PDF] until such time as a national-level grievance [PDF] on the issue is resolved. The union filed a dispute on the matter, after management notified the APWU of its intent to require employees to use the DOL forms.
In the past, the union encouraged members to use forms offered by the APWU, because the DOL forms ask physicians to provide some information that is not required by FMLA regulations.
USPS Seeks Supplier To Conduct All Non-Work Related Medical Exams
From the Federal Business Opportunities website:
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is pursuing a National Agreement with a Supplier(s) that has or is capable of developing a comprehensive Medical Provider Organization for conducting all non-work related medical examinations for the USPS. Postal Service offices are located in each of the 50 states plus Puerto Rico. Examinations and testing may be required in or around every city in the country.
This program will support the following USPS Internal Business Partner’s (IBP’s): Health and Resource Management (Occupational Health Services), U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Office of Inspector General, and Corporate Personnel Management.
The medical examinations include but are not limited to:
Pre-employment physical examinations for law enforcement applicants (Postal Inspectors, OIG Agents, and Postal Police Officers).
- Mandated law enforcement periodic physical examinations
- Specialty examinations for Forensic Laboratory Services and Technical Services personnel and Firing Range Instructors
- Health examinations for Postal Executives
- Focused Examinations for hiring suitability
- Fitness for Duty Examinations requested by the IBPs
- Fitness for Duty Examinations requested by Health and Resource Management for OWCP cases
- Threat Assessments (Emergency Fitness for Duty)
- FMLA Second and Third Opinions
- Return to work clearance exams
- Safe Driver program examinations
- National Reassessment Program examinations
- Specialty laboratory examinations and treatments
- Any other specific IBP medical examinations required
The majority of these examinations will require board certified specialists including psychiatrists, psychologists, orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, neurologists, physical medicine specialists, occupational medicine specialists, ophthalmologists, otolaryngologists, etc. The physician administering the examination is prohibited from establishing any future medical/professional relationship once the examination has been scheduled. The sole purpose of the examining physician is to administer the examination and to record the findings.
Response Date: Aug 27, 2010 11:59 pm Eastern
FMLA Leave Expanded to More Parents And Children
The Department of Labor issued the following clarification on the expanded FMLA regulations:
Neither the statute nor the regulations restrict the number of parents a child may have under the FMLA. For example, where a child’s biological parents divorce, and each parent remarries, the child will be the “son or daughter” of both the biological parents and the stepparents and all four adults would have equal rights to take FMLA leave to care for the child. An employee who will share equally in the raising of an adopted child with a same sex partner, but who does not have a legal relationship with the child, would be entitled to leave to bond with the child following placement, or to care for the child if the child had a serious health condition, because the employee stands “in loco parentis” to the child.
Wage and Hour Division Administrator’s Interpretation No. 2010-3
June 22, 2010
Issued by Deputy Administrator Nancy J. Leppink
SUBJECT: Clarification of the definition of “son or daughter” under Section 101(12) of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) as it applies to an employee standing “in loco parentis” to a child.
The Administrator has determined that additional clarification is needed on the definition of “son or daughter” as it applies to an employee taking FMLA-protected leave for the birth or placement of a child, to care for a newborn or newly placed child, or to care for a child with a serious health condition. Based on the Wage and Hour Division’s experience in administering the FMLA, it is evident that many employees and employers are unsure of how the FMLA applies when there is no legal or biological parent-child relationship. The Administrator is issuing this interpretation to provide needed guidance on this important area of law. Read more
ADA Considerations Following Exhaustion of FMLA Protected Leave
Exhaustion of FMLA protected leave is a common problem in the Postal Service. This legal article makes several good points about ADA considerations:
The broadened scope of the ADA increases the likelihood that anyone taking FMLA leave for their own serious health condition may also have an ADA protected disability. As a result, it is important for employers to consider whether the employee is covered by the ADA (or state disability law) before separating an employee who has provided notice of his or her inability to return to work following exhaustion of the employee’s maximum FMLA leave entitlement. Oftentimes, such employee notice includes a request for additional leave and/or a doctor’s note with a return-to-work date beyond the FMLA leave expiration date. While there is no duty under the FMLA to grant additional leave, if the employee’s medical condition meets the definition of an ADA disability, there may be a duty under the ADA to consider granting additional unpaid time off from work, as some courts have held that leave is a form of reasonable accommodation.
New FMLA Rules Increase Time Off To Help Care For Veteran, Active-Duty Relatives
Postal employees will have more opportunities to take time off work to help family members who are military service members or veterans under new rules mandated by the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act.
The law, signed late last year by President Obama, allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of paid or unpaid leave per year under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to help a family member who is on active duty or is being called up for active duty to a foreign country.
The new rules also enable employees to take up to 26 weeks of paid or unpaid leave per year under FMLA to care for family members who are veterans and need medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy for a serious injury or illness incurred in or aggravated by service in the line of duty on active duty.
Previously, employees could only take time off to help injured or ill family members who were active-duty military. To qualify, the veteran must have been a member of the military, National Guard, or Reserves during the five years preceding the treatment, recuperation or therapy.
Click here for further information about the Family and Medical Leave Act. (internal USPS link)
also see New Law Expands FMLA for Military Families
DOL to Reconsider Bush’s Last-Minute FMLA Changes
APWU News
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced [PDF] Dec. 7 that she is reviewing changes made early this year to regulations governing the Family and Medical Leave Act. The announcement has set off speculation that the Department of Labor will overturn revisions implemented at the very end of the Bush administration.
APWU members may recall that just four days before President Bush left the White House, he implemented several regulatory changes to the FMLA, some of which have caused problems for workers, including postal employees. The APWU was among several workers’ advocacy organizations that fought the imposition of the new rules.
Included among the changes were a narrowing of the definition of a “serious health condition,” requirements for additional medical documentation, requirements that medical evidence be provided more frequently, and permission for employers to contact an employee’s healthcare provider directly, without the employees’ knowledge or permission.
“We hope the Department of Labor will reverse policies that were pushed through just before President Obama took office,” said APWU Legislative & Political Department Director Myke Reid.
APWU President William Burrus wrote to Solis in June, saying that the Bush FMLA rules “weakened the law and made it more difficult for workers to exercise the right the legislation was designed to protect.”
The expected “new” regulations will be developed and published by November, Reid said, and the APWU’s concerns again will be shared with the Department of Labor. “Eleven months may seem like a long time, but notice must be given and a 60-day ‘comment period’ is required. We are optimistic that the subsequent review will work in our favor.”
Clarification On Use of APWU FMLA Forms
From APWU:
In response to a letter from the Postal Service stating that the APWU’s FMLA forms are not equivalent to the Department of Labor’s FMLA forms, the union has written the Postal Service clarifying our position on the use of the forms. Some managers have interpreted the USPS’s comments to mean that the APWU’s FMLA forms are unacceptable. This is not true. FMLA regulations do not require that certification be provided on any particular form, or in any particular format, as long as the information is complete and sufficient. Management must make a case-by-case determination if the documentation provided is complete and sufficient. If it’s not, they are required to explain to the employee, in writing, what they must do to make the form complete and sufficient. They cannot require the use of the optional DOL forms. In addition, the optional DOL forms contain space for doctors to provide information that is not required by the regulations. The APWU continues to encourage our members to use the APWU forms. Click here for exchange of correspondence on FMLA forms
APWU President Burrus Calls on Labor Department to Reverse Bush FMLA Rules
APWU News
APWU President William Burrus has called on U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to rescind the new regulations [PDF] governing the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that were imposed by the Bush Administration just days before the former president left office.
The Bush FMLA rules “weakened the law and made it more difficult for workers to exercise the rights the legislation was designed to protect,” Burrus said in his June 3 letter [PDF] to Solis.
The new regulations, he noted, define “serious health condition” more narrowly; require employees to provide more medical documentation about their conditions, and provide it more often; allow employers to contact an employee’s healthcare providers without the employees’ knowledge or permission, and permit employers to request FMLA recertification every six months in conjunction with an absence, at the employee’s expense.
In calling for the reversal of the President Bush’s parting shot to American working families, however, Burrus requested that Labor Department “retain the one positive change” in the new rules: the expansion of FMLA rights for members of the military and their families.
Burrus praised the FMLA Restoration Act (H.R. 2161), introduced in the House of Representatives on April 29 by Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), but asked the labor secretary to reverse the new rules without waiting for the legislation to pass.
Bill To Reverse Changes To FMLA Implemented In Bush Adminstration Introduced
APWU News
FMLA Restoration Act Introduced
A bill intended to reverse changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act regulations that were implemented just before President Obama took office has been introduced in the U.S. House.
The FMLA Restoration Act, introduced on April 29 by Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), would “nullify certain regulations promulgated under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, and restore prior regulations.”
The purpose of the bill (H.R. 2161) is to roll back the harmful changes made by President Bush four days before he left the White House: FMLA regulations that went into effect on Jan. 16 have created problems in the field, such as employer representatives contacting workers’ doctors without the workers’ consent, and rejecting previously accepted FMLA certifications. Workers with long-accepted “conditions” have been challenged and have been forced to visit their doctors repeatedly.
“The original intent of this important law has been compromised,” said Myke Reid, APWU Legislative & Political Department director. “The Bush Administration regulations make attempts to use leave under the provisions of the law a constant battle.
“The bill offered by Rep. Shea-Porter is intended to reverse the most restrictive and burdensome of the changes imposed by the Bush administration. We urge APWU members to contact their representatives to ensure its swift passage.”