APWU: Internal USPS NRP Letter No Cause for Celebration
An internal USPS document indicating that the reassessment of Limited Duty and Rehabilitation employees concluded on Jan. 31, 2011, is not cause for celebration, Human Relations Director Sue Carney says, because the National Reassessment Process (NRP) seems to have been eliminated in name only. (note: As PostalReporter.com reported, USPS calls NRP simply ELM546. Other instructions given to managers included how the PS Form 2499 (limited-duty offer) was completed. Previously managers were improperly inserting language into the PS 2499). Read more
USPS Ends National Reassessment Process (NRP) For Injured On Duty Postal Employees
From PostalReporter.com reader: National Reassessment Process is Dead! Finally! The attached notice is all we’re going to get? Note that the phrase “adequate work” has replaced NRP’s “necessary work.” This is consistent with ELM 546. The MSPB picked up on that.
As PostalReporter.com reported several months ago, USPS is referring to NRP as ELM 546.
Here is the text of USPS notice:
July 1, 2011
AREA VICE PRESIDENTS
SUBJECT: Modified Assignment Process for Limited Duty and Rehabilitation Employees
The reassessment of Limited Duty and Rehabilitation employees, referred to as the National Reassessment Process (NRP), concluded on January 31, 2011.
Assignment of Limited Duty and Rehabilitation employees will continue to be made in compliance with Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM) Section 546, Handbook EL 505, all applicable federal laws and regulations, and our collective bargaining agreements. And the attached Guidelines for Assignment should be used when trying to identify adequate work for limited duty and rehabilitation employees.
As questions arise, managers and supervisors should work closely with Health and Resource Management, Labor Relations, the Human Resources Manager, and the Law Department in order to clarify the issues presented and to ensure compliance with both Postal Service and federal regulations.
We will appreciate your support and assistance to ensure these guidelines are met.
Deborah Giannoni-Jackson
Vice President
Employee Resource Management
USPS National Reassessment Process (NRP) Notice
House Committee Approves Reform of Federal Workers’ Compensation Program
Bipartisan legislation passes with unanimous support
WASHINGTON, D.C. | July 13, 2011 -
Today, the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce passed with unanimous support the Federal Workers’ Compensation Modernization and Improvement Act (H.R. 2465). The legislation updates the federal workers’ compensation program to better protect taxpayer resources and modernizes benefits to reflect the realities of today’s economy. Read more
Injured postal worker fights for medical benefits
Filed under: Injured On Duty, mail handlers, owcp, postal, postal news, usps
“Jerome Garrett is fighting for federal medical benefits.Garrett had been working at the Hapeville postal facility for 16 years. Then, in April 2009, a 100-pound box full of mail fell from an overhead conveyor belt and hit him in the head.The incident left Garrett with a broken neck that went unnoticed for some time, he said.Garrett told Channel 2′s Erica Byfield that it took six months for doctors to realize that the accident had broken his neck.Garrett said his surgeon cleared him to go back to work. But his wife showed Byfield paperwork from other spinal specialists who said he is not ready to return to work.The Department of Labor handles benefits for postal employees. The Garretts want them to reinstate him.”
Full story from WSB-TV Atlanta, Georgia
MSPB: USPS National Reassessment Process Must Find Work For Injured Employees In Commuting Area
Filed under: Injured On Duty, mspb, nrp, postal, postal news, usps
More MSPB cases filed by Postal Workers were remanded during the month of October. The cases were remanded because the Postal Service’s job search under the National Reassessment Process was limited to installations within a single district and failed to include the entire commuting area as required by 5 C.F.R. § 353.301(d). Each decision cited Sanchez v. USPS, 2010 MSPB 121.
The Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM’s) regulations provide:
Agencies must make every effort to restore in the local commuting area, according to the circumstances in each case, an individual who has partially recovered from a compensable injury and who is able to return to limited duty. At a minimum, this would mean treating these employees substantially the same as other handicapped individuals under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. 5 C.F.R. § 353.301(d).
The Board has interpreted this regulation as requiring agencies to search within the local commuting area for vacant positions to which an agency can restore a partially recovered employee and to consider her for any such vacancies. Sanchez v. U.S. Postal Service, 114 M.S.P.R. 345, ¶ 12 (2010); see Sapp v. U.S. Postal Service, 73 M.S.P.R. 189, 193-94 (1997); see also Urena v. U.S. Postal Service, 113 M.S.P.R. 6, ¶ 13 (2009) (evidence that the agency failed to search the local commuting area as required by 5 C.F.R. § 353.301(d) rendered nonfrivolous the appellant’s allegation that the agency acted arbitrarily and capriciously in denying restoration).
“For restoration rights purposes, the local commuting area is the geographic area in which an individual lives and can reasonably be expected to travel back and forth daily to his usual duty station.” Hicks v. U.S. Postal Service, 83 M.S.P.R. 599, ¶ 9 (1999). It includes any population center, or two or more neighboring ones, and the surrounding localities. Sapp, 73 M.S.P.R. at 193. The question of what constitutes a local commuting area is one of fact. The extent of a commuting area ordinarily is determined by factors such as common practice, the availability and cost of public transportation or the convenience and adequacy of highways, and the travel time required to go to and from work. Sanchez, 114 M.S.P.R. 345, ¶ 13.
Summary of MSPB cases on National Reassessment Process:
Appellant: Blanca G. Patino
Agency: United States Postal Service
Decision Number: 2010 MSPB 210
Docket Number: SF-0353-10-0183-I-1
Issuance Date: October 29, 2010
Appeal Type: Restoration to Duty
Action Type: Denial After Partial Recovery from Compensable Injury
In June 2009, the agency’s Bay-Valley District began implementation of Phase 2 of the National Reassessment Program (NRP). Under the NRP, the agency seeks to identify operationally necessary work for employees with compensable injuries. The Bay-Valley District undertook to identify operationally necessary tasks and assess employees on limited duty assignments for modified work assignments. On November 18, 2009, pursuant to the NRP, the agency provided the appellant a modified assignment as a Sales Associate for 3 hours a day. Starting December 17, 2009, the agency assigned the appellant to work 8 hours a day as a lobby host for the holiday season. *
The appellant filed an appeal alleging that the agency’s provision of only 3 hours of work was a rescission of her restoration to duty after a compensable injury and denial of reasonable accommodation. The agency filed a Motion to Dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. The administrative judge issued an initial decision granting the agency’s motion.
The appellant has filed a petition for review. Petition for Review (PFR) . She asserts that the administrative judge misstated her physical restrictions, did not consider the relevancy of the collective bargaining agreement, and erroneously found that the agency’s action was not arbitrary and capricious because she had been doing the same work since 2007. She further contends that the agency failed to search for work within a 50-mile radius and directed the offices to which it sent search requests to respond negatively
Although the initial decision states that “the agency submitted evidence that it searched for available work within the appellant’s medical restrictions in her commuting area,” it does not define the local commuting area relevant in the appellant’s restoration claim. Therefore, we are remanding the appeal for supplemental proceedings and issuance of a new initial decision. See Mubdi v. U.S. Postal Service, 114 M.S.P.R. 559, ¶ 12 (2010). On remand, the administrative judge shall oversee further development of the record by the parties on this issue, including an opportunity for discovery by the parties and a hearing. Id.; see Sanchez, 114 M.S.P.R. 345, ¶ 15; Sapp, 73 M.S.P.R. at 193-94 (remanding the appeal for further development of the record on what constituted the local commuting area and whether the agency’s job search properly encompassed that area). Read more
Postal Workers Sent Home Or Hours Reduced Under USPS NRP Can Apply For Unemployment
Injured employees who undergo the National Reassessment Process (NRP) and are told by the Postal Service either that there is only partial-day work available or that there is no work available, should consider applying for unemployment compensation. This temporary financial assistance can serve as an important monetary bridge during the time that an employee is waiting for his or her OWCP compensation to be processed.
This program is formally known as the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employee’s Program, and is administered by the states under separate agreements with the U.S. Secretary of Labor. A Postal Service employee’s entitlement to this benefit is determined by each state’s employment security laws and varies according to the individual state rules and the employee’s wage and separation history.
An injured employee whose work hours have been reduced or eliminated by the NRP should ask the Postal Service to provide them with a Form SF 8, Notice to Former Employee About Unemployment Insurance. Don’t be misled by the phrase “former employee.” The SF 8 is also used for current employees who have had their work hours reduced or eliminated. The complete instructions can be found in Chapter 550, “Unemployment Compensation,” of the Employee and Labor Relations Manual.
Health and Resource Management personnel at Postal Service headquarters have assured us that the SF 8 will be made available to injured employees who receive “Partial Day Work” or “Complete Day No Work” letters. However, the employee must ask for the form. It will not be provided automatically.
Injured employees who are provided work on an intermittent basis are issued an SF 8 only for the first time in each calendar year when they are placed in a non-pay status. However, an SF 8 is issued each time to any employee who is, or will be, placed in a non-pay status for seven or more consecutive calendar days.
To facilitate the processing of a claim for unemployment compensation, an employee should take with them the SF 8; the most recent SF 50, Notification of Personnel Action; their Social Security card; W-2 form, and a recent pay stub showing earnings and leave balance.
OWCP will pay injured employees wage loss compensation even if they are receiving unemployment compensation. OWCP does not consider this situation to be a prohibited dual payment. However, virtually every state’s unemployment compensation regulations do consider this to be a dual payment, and would expect to be reimbursed for the unemployment compensation that was paid during the same period that a person received OWCP wage loss compensation.
note: Any Postal Employee can apply for unemployment if: “An individual whose work or tours of duty are on an intermittent basis is issued an SF 8 only the first time in each calendar year that he or she is placed in a nonpay status. [e.g. suspension of more than 7 days, PTF hours reduced..]
source: American Postal Workers Union
links provided by PostalReporter.com
Oakland: Postal Employees Injured On Job Continue To Be Placed Off-Duty
The Thanksgiving Ambush
Oakland Postal management hit injured employees with “shock and awe” tactics better suited to the battlefield. Starting a few days before Thanksgiving of 2009, management started to place injured on duty employees off duty. The expected Phase 2 interviews never took place: employees were called aside, allowed to clean out their lockers, and told to
leave the building.
The departures have continued into April 2010. Injured employees have been left wondering if they will be next, and even bystanders are often disturbed by the sight of co-workers forced to do the perp walk just for having been injured on the job. The procedure was heavily scripted, designed to leave no room for negotiation.
Oakland injured employees had been forewarned and offered coaching by local officers and by Western Regional Coordinator Omar Gonzalez. A series of workshops given by the Oakland Local last summer outlined the history of the NRP and suggested ways to contest actions taken under the program, from filing grievances and EEO complaints to appealing to the MSPB. All of the members that have been placed in a non work status have remained in contact with the local and have received assistance with paperwork. Most of the employees are receiving compensation from OWCP or unemployment benetits from EDD. Thirty of the local’s grievances that were appealed to Step 3 regarding the NRP ambush have been remand to Step 2 pending adjustication of a national grievance that is not applicable to our cases. President Jacobs has ask APWU Headquarters to rescind the remand settlement and have the cases appealed to arbitration.
source: Fred Jacobs, Oakland APWU President
USPS Statement for Response to Media Inquiries Only Regarding the National Reassessment Process
The non-tax supported U.S. Postal Service views the safety and well being of its employees as its top priority. In situations where employees have been injured on the job, we make every attempt to provide necessary work that meets their physical limitations until they are able to return to their regular work assignment.
These jobs are referred to as limited duty or rehabilitative duty assignments and often involve sorting mail by hand.
Two issues have virtually eliminated these positions — advancements in mail sorting technology and the dramatic decline in mail volume as a result of the downturn in the economy. Mail volume peaked nationwide in 2006 with 212 billion pieces as contrasted with 175 billion pieces in 2009.
The National Reassessment Process (NRP), launched nationwide by the Postal Service in October of 2006, reviews assignments of injured ON THE JOB workers to ensure they are performing duties that fit the operational needs of the U.S. Postal Service. If necessary work is unavailable, employees are advised of their right to file for compensation with the Office of Workers Compensation Programs (OWCP) under the U.S. Department of Labor.
Employees who obtain injury compensation benefits from the OWCP may participate in the OWCP Vocational Rehabilitation program for placement in a new job with other federal agencies or private sector employment.
If NRP affected employees obtain a new non-postal job paying less than what they made at the Postal Service, they receive the difference through the Department of Labor which forwards the cost to the Postal Service.
The decision to pay employee compensation or to participate in the Vocational Rehabilitation program rests with the OWCP.
The U.S. Postal Service has worked closely with the OWCP and the U.S. Department of Labor in administering the NRP.
The NRP matter remains in continuing litigation. To ensure the integrity of that legal process, and in keeping with its employee personnel rules and privacy statutes, the U.S. Postal Service cannot comment on any specific NRP situation or NRP-affected employee.
source: U.S. Postal Service via KCNC TV Denver