LIMITED DUTY
Rural carrier craft employees, who have suffered an approved on-the-job
traumatic injury, are entitled to Continuation Of Pay (COP) for up to
45 calendar days. If a craft employee has an approved occupational
injury or disease COP is not applicable, since such injury or disease
is precipitated, aggravated, or accelerated by conditions over a period
of time. (See related articles on Traumatic Injury and Occupational
Injury/Disease in the November 2-9-16- 23,1991, April 11,1992 and
February 20,1993 issues of the National Rural Letter Carrier magazine.)
In cases of a rural carrier's approved on-the-job injury claim by the Department of Labor (OWCP) a rural carrier craft employee may be able to perform limited duty work, subject to the medical limitation or restriction of the injured employee. When a craft employee has partially overcome the injury or disability the Postal Service has several obligations (Reference ELM 546.14). When the employee partially overcomes a compensable disability, the Postal Service must make every effort in assigning the employee to limited duty work consistent with their medical restrictions.
In assigning such limited duty work, the Postal Service should minimize any adverse or disruptive impact on the employee, to the maximum extent possible. If appropriate duty is not available within the employee's work limitations or tolerances in the craft or normally scheduled hours, other work may be assigned within that facility. If appropriate work is not available in the assigned office and hours, work outside of the regular schedule may be assigned.
However, all reasonable efforts should be made to assign 'the employee to limited duty within the employee's craft and to keep the hours of limited duty as close as possible to the employee's regular schedule. If these opportunities do not exist or are inappropriate, an employee may be assigned limited duty outside of the assigned post office. This can only occur if there is not adequate work available.
The Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) requires that the Postal Service attempt to provide alternate employment if such is available. For an offer of modified duty to be valid, the offer must be in writing and must include a description of the duties to be performed, the specific physical requirements, any other demands of the work load or conditions, the location of the job, and the date that the job will be available.
The offer must also include a date to which a response is required. This offer of limited duty must be based on OWCP Form CA-17 or other medical documentation from the treating physician or other medical provider as designated by OWCP. Based on the medical assessment, the Postal Service job offer must conform to the specified limitations. Federal regulations require the injured employee to seek and perform limited duty assignments, when medically able to do so, and the Postal Service to make every effort to provide work within the injured employee's medical restrictions.
Once medical evidence indicates a change from total to partial disability, the Postal Service or OWCP may request hat the injured employee inform the physician that limited duty work is available or Management can contact the physician directly. The Postal Service may send your attending physician the requirements of a particular job or the Postal Service may use the CA-17 (Duty Status Report) or other suitable evidence to modify a job in order to meet your medical limitations.
If your attending physician approves of the job and finds it acceptable, you would normally be expected to accept the modified job offer. If you fail to report for duty on the designated start date, the Postal Service will terminate Continuation of Pay (COP) and advise OWCP accordingly.
When an employee is on the compensation rolls for a period of time, the Postal Service will usually make a modified job offer. If you believe that you are unable to perform the limited duties, for medical reasons related to your injury, you must provide written medical evidence to this affect from your attending physician and/or your own personal narrative in the appropriate time frame.
In an Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB) decision for Maggie L. Moore, docket number 901291, issued March 8, 1991 and reaffirmed May 9, 1992, it was determined that an employee must be given a reasonable opportunity to accept the position before compensation payments are terminated. This decision sets out specific actions to be taken in such situations.
1. When the employing establishment (USPS) makes an offer of employment to a claimant, the Office (OWCP) will determine its suitability in accordance with the procedures described in Chapter 2.813 of the FECA Procedure Manual.
2. When a proffered job is determined to be suitable, the claimant will be advised by letter and given the usual 30 days of the date of the letter to either accept the job or provide reasons, in writing for refusing it.
3. If the job is refused and the reasons given are considered unacceptable, the claimant will be informed by letter, given 15 days from the date of the letter to accept the job, and advised that the Office will not consider any further reasons for refusal. No explanation of why the job is still considered suitable needs to be included in this 15 day notice.
4.If the claimant does not accept the job within the 15 day period, compensation payments, including scheduled award payments, will be terminated by OWCP. The decision terminating compensation payments must contain a full discussion of the circumstances, including a detailed explanation of why the job is suitable and the reasons for refusal are not valid.
If the claimant neither accepts the job nor provides written reasons for the refusal within the initial 30 day period, compensation payments will be terminated by OWCP without any further notice to the claimant. When determining the proper rate of pay for craft employees, who have an approved on-the-job injury/illness, they are entitled to receive the pay rate in effect at the time of the injury. For example:
You are serving a 46K route and have been approved for limited duty work. You are entitled to the salary for a 46K evaluated route. If your limited duty work hours are limited to 20 hours in a work week, you would then have to complete a CA-7 the first pay period in order for OWCP to determine the appropriate pay rate for compensation for the difference in hours between the limited duty work and your evaluated pay.
In this situation you would be entitled to the difference between 20 hours of limited duty work and 46 hours of evaluated pay, or compensation payments of 26 hours per week. Each subsequent pay period in which you work limited duty hours would have a completed CA-8 forwarded to OWCP for the difference between your limited duty hours and your evaluated route hours. In this situation, if your recovered to the extent that you could work 40 hours of limited duty, you would continue to complete a CA-8 each pay period for the difference. This would continue for as long as you remain on limited duty and are unable to perform the full duties of your rural carrier position.
In the situation of an RCA/RCR, for whom the Postal Service has no established work history and who is considered "When Actually Employed" (WAE), the weekly pay rate is the average of the employees earning with the Postal Service during the year prior to the injury. OWCP usually considers 52 weeks as a reasonable period during which a work history can be established. However, it might be a lesser period if the work history can be clearly demonstrated. If a clear work history cannot be established, the pay rate would be computed using the following two formulas. The average annual earnings, however, must not be less than 150 times the average daily wage earned within one year prior to the date of the injury. (The daily wage is the hourly rate times 8). The pay rate should be computed using both of the formulas shown below ; the higher result should be accepted as the pay rate:
Establish the average of the employee's weekly earnings during the year prior to the injury according to the following formula;
P = Total pay earned during one year prior to the injury (excluding overtime) (i.e.. a craft employee working on a 9.36 hour route is not considered overtime.)
W = Total number of weeks worked
P/W = Employee's average weekly earnings
Determine the weekly pay rate by multiplying the average daily wage earned during the year prior to the injury by 150;
P = Total pay earned during one year prior to the injury (excluding overtime) (i.e. working a 48K with 9 hours and 36 minutes per day would not be considered overtime.)
H = Total number of hours worked
P/W = Y Average hourly pay rate
Y x 8 x 150 divided by 52 = Average weekly earnings.