Postal Workers Class Action EEOC Cases Against USPS
Filed under: eeo, legal cases, postal, postal employees, usps
The following are summaries of some class action EEOC cases pending and/or settled against USPS.
John Cyncar vs USPS
In the first class action case, complainant John Cyncar on April 30, 2001 filed a formal EEO complaint alleging that he was discriminated against in violation of Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 791 et seq., (Rehabilitation Act). Cyncar then moved to have portions of his complaint certified as a class action. He alleged, on behalf of the class, that the Postal Service’s Western Area Region violated the Rehabilitation Act when it treated qualified individuals with disabilities between January 1, 1998, and December 31, 2002 differently and less favorably than non-disabled individuals with respect to benefits provided by the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and that the Postal Service’s treatment of disabled employees with respect to the FMLA resulted in failure to accommodate their disabilities and the discriminatory issuance of disability related absences. An EEOC Administrative Judge certified the class and letters were sent out to 49,000 potential class members . The USPS denied that it violated the Rehabilitation Act, FMLA, or that it did anything wrong. Regardless, the parties agreed to settle this Case on Dec 22, 2010. The parties decided to settled this case due to in part that Phases of the litigation would possibly take up to 5 or 6 more years (the case was already 8 years old). Cyncar v. United States Postal Service.
The settlement provided that USPS will pay, in full settlement of all claims in this Case:
The total sum of three-million-eight-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollars ($3,850,000)
This sum is comprised of: (1) a Class Fund of two-million-seven-hundred-thousand-dollars ($2,700,000); (2) two-hundred-thousand-dollars ($200,000) as a Reserve, as described in Section 7.3 of the Global Settlement Agreement; and (3) payment of attorneys’ fees and costs to Class Counsel in the amount of nine-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollars ($950,000).
From the Class Fund of $2,700,000.00, the following amounts are allocated as follows:
a) $20,000.00 to Class Agent Cyncar for his efforts throughout the course of the litigation;
b) $3,500.00 per person for each of the eight members of the Cyncar Settlement Committee; and
c) The payment of $9,783.54 as reimbursement for costs contributed by Class members
A provision that unclaimed funds would be divided equally between the USPS and the Wounded Warriors Fund.
All amounts remaining in the Reserve after payment of all Administrative Costs would be divided among eligible class members on apro rata basis.
Next case
Diana Pevoteaux v. United States Postal Service
The proposed class complaint alleges that the agency discriminated against class members when medical information was posted in the eRMS and made available to all personnel with access to the system in violation of the Rehabilitation Act. Specifically, it is alleged that the Postal Service is violating the Rehabilitation Act restrictions on the storage of confidential medical information by entering medical conditions and histories, including symptoms, diagnoses, or conditions, in the case comments section of FMLA Data Reports maintained in eRMS (Enterprise Resource Management System). It also alleged that the Postal Service is violating the Rehabilitation Act by disclosing this stored medical conditions and histories through eRMS to managers and supervisors who do not need the information to provide accommodations or to ensure medical restrictions are followed. This case is still pending.
Sandra McConnell vs USPS
A class action complaint for injured on duty postal employees was certified by an EEOC Administrative Judge (AJ) on May 30,2008.
In the case of (Read article from February 17, 2009) Sandra McConnell, et al. v. United States Postal Service an AJ decision certified the following class:
All permanent rehabilitation employees and limited duty employees at the U.S. Postal Service who have been subjected to the National Reassessment Process (NRP) from May 5, 2006 to present, allegedly in violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The AJ certification decision recited evidence that the goal of NRP was to assign work to employees who had an approved compensable injury as determined by the Department of Labor.
Class members argued one or more of the following complaints:
1. NRP is a systemic attempt to abolish reasonable accommodations agency wide.
2. The agency’s alleged facially non-discriminatory policy is being applied in a discriminatory manner.
3. The process constitutes denial(s) of reasonable accommodation.
4. The process constitutes discrimination based on disability (physical/mental).
5. The process constitutes unlawful harassment and hostile work environment based on disability (physical/mental).
6. The agency unlawfully modified or terminated each person’s approved disability accommodations without cause.
7. The agency made its reassignment decisions improperly by, inter alia, failing to engage in the interactive process.
8. The agency applied the program discriminatorily both with regard to each individual and how the process was applied.
9. The agency’s actions are retaliatory for the individual’s protected conduct, in reporting injuries, filing worker’s compensation, and/or prior EEO activity.
10. The agency’s conduct violated its procedures and OWCP’s regulations and blatant failure to follow the agency’s own regulations is presumed to be motivated by retaliation and/or discrimination. This case is still pending.
Edmund Walker vs USPS
Edmond C. Walker, the class agent in the Walker class action, filed a complaint on August 19, 2002. Walker alleged that, since April 2000, the Postal Service discriminated against individuals with disabilities by:
1. Placing disabled individuals in permanent rehabilitation positions without engaging in the interactive process as required by law;
2. Restricting disabled individuals who are placed in permanent rehabilitation [sic] to limited work hours without any medical justification and without consulting the individual with a disability;
3. Fail[ing] to allow individuals with a disability, who have been placed in permanent rehabilitation positions, to work the number of hours determined appropriate by the individual and his/her physician and which are available; and
4. Fail[ing] to allow individuals with a disability, who have been placed in permanent rehabilitation positions, to use assistive devices in the workplace to accommodate their disabilities, including but not limited to, electric scooters, notwithstanding that said assistive devices pose no threat to safety or inconvenient [sic] in the workplace.
This claim has been analyzed to include denial of overtime.
On December 12, 2003, an EEOC Administrative Judge issued a decision concerning the Walker class complaint. The Administrative Judge ordered the Postal Service to “identify all those pending complaints that raise the same issue as the Walker class complaint during the time frame encompassed by the Walker class complaint, January 1, 2000, to the present.” Unsure of status of this case.
There are several more EEOC class actions cases filed by Postal Workers which I will post at a later time.
Black Postal Workers Brace For Proposed Cuts
From National Public Radio:
For decades, the U.S. Postal Service has provided many communities of color with a reliable career option with steady benefits. But proposed budget and service cuts — including eliminating Saturday deliveries — threaten the livelihoods of many career postal workers. To get a sense of how communities of color will be affected by these proposed cuts, host Michel Martin speaks with William Burrus, president of the American Postal Workers Union. Also joining the discussion is Philip Rubio, the author of There’s Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs, Justice and Equality. click here to listen to the story
Postal Worker Responds to Postcom’s Comment on Employees “Sitting Idly In Holding Rooms”
Postcom.org published the following response to its accusation that postal workers were “sitting idle in holding rooms refusing to do work because contract agreements said they didn’t have to.”(7/14)
:
We sit idle on the clock because management orders us to do so. There are employees asking to leave without pay and they are not allowed to go. There is work for us to perform. I know, I have documented the amount of mail sitting and waiting for management to put the clerks back on the floor. The Union has filed grievances to stop this behavior and they are all held pending a national decision from POSTAL MANAGEMENT. The reason they will not let the employees that want to leave the building go home is because there is work that needs to be done and if they let those employees go home the mail won’t be moved. It’s not the Unions causing the problem. It’s the beancounters in headquarters who have no idea of how the mail actually gets from one place to another. They look at reports and make stupid decisions. If you want your postal rates to go down trim USPS Headquarters. While there are fewer craft employees the number of people employeed at headquarters has increased. Go to your local post office and talk to a window clerk if you want the real scoop on the USPS. Stop beating up the people that do move your mailings and that actually care that it gets moved properly.
Sounds like something the Postal Service’s Inspector General should explore.
Postal Worker’s Letter to PRC: Don’t End Saturday Delivery – Save Money Elsewhere
A Texas Postal Worker in a letter to the Postal Regulatory Commission regarding the elimination of Saturday mail delivery he wrote:
Greetings Everyone!
My name is Bill Hall and I have been a mail processing clerk in the Amarillo, Tx facility for the past 18 years. What I see on a daily basis is the extreme waste that is being put forth in our facility. Money is being wasted on salaries for supervisory positions. We have too many of them. I feel the 204B program should be eliminated. We have more of need for these people as clerks than supervisor trainees. All of our trainees and supervisors work where needed and when needed. In other words, they supervise half the shift and work manually the remaining shift. There have been times when the MDO’s (shift supervisors) have done the job of supervising a particular area if that person is on vacation or even off a day or two. Why can’t the supervisors and MDO’s develop a plan to have rotating days off? I think this alone would curb the use of trainees and their salary. We need them as clerks. There have been occasions where there is no supervisor at the facility on weekends, only 1 trainee. This is
unacceptable.
Almost all of our supervisors have had no previous experience in leadership . Our maintenance is deplorable. The Postal Service is paying good money to a group of people who do nothing but play dominoes and take breaks. This is another area where jobs need to be eliminated. Either do your job or get out. The supervisor needs to get his group together or leave. If an employee can’t find a clean restroom on a daily basis, the supervisor and his crew are getting paid to do nothing.
Another area that needs to be addressed is the unbelievable amout of overtime that is being paid. Several of us go in 2 hours before shift to clean up empty equipment. Most of this is due to the negligence of supervision from the previous shift. They let their employees go home early to save hours but they won’t make them clean up after themselves. I hate to say it, but I will take advantage of the overtime for this stupidity.
I think the Postal Service is eliminating positions that they should leave alone. The mailhandler positions are a thing of the past in Amarillo. The processing clerks are presently doing all duties of the mailhandler with exception of actually unloading the trucks. I think in due time we will be unloading trucks.
Another area that needs to be addressed is the unnecessary paperwork that supervisors have to
complete. With all that there is to do, they don’t have time to supervise. We had a former supervisor that spent 8 of the 9 hours that he was there on the computer doing paperwork. If paperwork could be eliminated, then there would be jobs to be eliminated at all district offices. Big money can be saved in this area. The jobs being held in district offices needs to be scruitinized. To make this situation work that the Postal Service is in, you are going to have to eliminate jobs. But, those jobs should be at the top.
I don’t think we should give discounts to mailers. They should have to pay what everybody else pays per letter. Seems to me we have lost millions over the years because of this. This is an area where the Domestic Mail Manual needs to be rewritten. We could possibly make money just by changing and simplifying the legalese for customers and employees alike. Too many regulations with discounts.
The Postal Service is a SERVICE company. We have not been giving good service in my opinion. I
don’t think we should eliminate one day of the week of service to save money. On weekends we have plenty of mail to work and we get it out on time. It’s ridiculous to cut service to save money when the real problem of saving money is at the top.
Thank You!
Bill Hall