The following letter was sent to me due to my ongoing series about the management crisis in the United States Postal Service (USPS). This is a new piece, dealing with an issue echoed by other letters, alleging the USPS is remiss in dealing with injured and/or handicapped or disabled workers.
At the bottom of this letter is a link to previous pieces in this series.
Much more will follow. I am withholding name and address of this writer due to fears of reprisals, though I have all the contact information. Another letter will be published tomorrow. Please note: all letter were submitted to this newpaper, and all allegations are not proved.
I am the father, of a son who worked full time as a rural carrier in Ct. for the Post Office for over 13 years.
He is still presently on the rolls and receives a pay stub every two weeks with .00 pay. His status is LWOP –IOD “leave without pay- Injured on Duty” Status.
Oct. 8, 2005 while delivering mail into a box on his route his LLV mail truck was struck by a car.
A few days later he was sent to the PO doctor for his shoulder and arm. Checked over he was sent back to work.
This went on for a couple months as his shoulder and arm were feeling worse with soreness and pain. He went to another doctor that told him he needed treatment and would not be able to do his complete rural carrier job if he was to improve. After taking MRI’s it was suggested his shoulder needed surgery to repair his right labrum which was completed.
Following his recovery period he was returned to duty. He continued to experience pain and inflammation. Unfortunately, the surgical repair did not withstand the rigors of the job and a second more detailed surgery was required. While waiting for doctors evaluation of the surgery about 9 months for my son to achieve maximum medical improvement in opinion of the doctor, my son now had many job restrictions imposed as a result. He was placed in a modified duty assignment. It was a make shift job without a detailed job description. My son essentially performed a number of tasks that his supervisors asked of him each day.
The Health & Resource Management Dept. of (town blocked out by JTP)
informed the Department of Labor, D.C., the limited duty job was available indefinitely to my son. With this assurance and the fact the job was for 40 hours a week the DOL/OWCP issued what they refer to as a “NO Loss of Wage Earning Decision.” Which means the OWCP does not pay any compensation because there is no loss in wages given the employee is still working full time and receiving the same amount.
The following year, 2009, the USPS was proceeding with the “National Reassessment Program or NRP”. The program was rolled out in 2007 after several years of development. Its stated purpose was to basically reassess “all the injured on duty employees” thru the U.S.A., who were currently working modified assignments and to make sure the assignments they were working met their medical restrictions. However, the real purpose was to reduce the Postal Service’s liability as most of the employees were notified their jobs were no longer available. And after performing a search there was no work available for the employee which met his/her restrictions. They were told to file for OWCP compensation. However, as I am sure you have already figured out, when he did his claim was denied because he had a NO LWEC decision on file.
Even though the form he submitted had job withdrawn due to NRP and was completed and signed by the same HRM specialist as they are referred to that initially told the DOL/OWCP the limited duty job was available indefinitely months earlier. The USPS saves paying my son his salary and they save chargeback from the DOL/OWCP because he is not receiving any compensation benefits which he is otherwise entitled to. He has contacted the USPS HRM department to correct the form and was told by the acting head of the department “you don’t expect me to fill out a form so Mr. can receive $3800. I will not do it.”
It aggravated me he had someone review my son’s file and verify mistakes were made and calculate how much the monthly compensation benefit would be to the penny. But he was not going to risk filling out a form and signing his name to it because he would have to accept accountability for his actions from the higher ups. A side note when this same individual was contacted prior he said my son should be receiving OWCP compensation benefits and he did not understand why he was not receiving them.
I could add more for you to read but between the PO and DOL both need to be really looked into, as to their actions, in some cases break laws.
People in this country have no idea what the Post Office did to all the on the job injured employees.
Name withheld by publisher.
Click here to read previous piece with links to previous articles in this series.
