Indiana Postal Workers Union - Medical Reassessment Program Phase I & II

MEDICAL REASSESSMENT PROGRAM
by Randall R Downard, IPWU Human Relations/OWCP Director

Phase I of the Medical Reassessment Program started in November of 2006 in all USPS Districts, that dealt with updating all light and limited duty employees medical records and making sure that everyone was in a suitable assignment providing work with-in their medical limitations, work assigned according to 546 of the ELM (pecking order) since that time it would be wise for every one to continue to provide the Postal Service with updated medical information at least once every year and preferably every six months, regardless of your situation, permanent or temporary light and limited duty.

Phase II will be starting soon, and during that portion the Postal Service will be evaluating the 'necessity' of specific job duties; interviewing partially recovered employees; and then renewing their existing job offer, providing new job offers, or referring the employees to OWCP for suitable work assignments.

Providing limited-duty and rehabilitations jobs will take priority over creating light duty assignments, however, the Postal Service must follow your local memos for light duty assignments and can not arbitrarily deny the injured worker light duty until they have made every effort to find work for them.

The Postal Service should be made aware of all duties that an affected employee can perform. Non-work related medical restrictions should be provided so those issues can be accommodated as well. If the Postal Service indicates that there is no work available for you, you should make a record of the work that you feel you can perform. If the Postal Service makes you a job offer you will have 14 days to accept or reject the offer, remember that the only reason to reject a job offer is that the job offer would not be with-in the boundaries of your medical restrictions. If employees want their Doctors to review this job offer, and can not do that with-in the 14 day time limit reasonable extensions should be granted, all communications over these issues should be in writing, and you should keep a copy.

The employees that are not given job offers will be given forms CA-2a and CA-7 along with a letter from the Postal Service claiming they have no work available for them. You should fill out those forms as soon as possible so you can start drawing compensation for the wage loss created by the denial of work.

Each individual should be evaluated and a decision made based on their circumstances.

If you have any questions you should consult with your Union Steward, you should also ask for a steward to be present during your interviews.

In the pilot for this program approximately 15% of the employees were denied employment by the Postal Service and each one of them went right back on the OWCP periodic rolls (compensation) tax free. What a way to save money!