pivotman: I listened to a Bench Decision recently wherein the Admin Judge was agreeing with the Agency that running an office 14 CARRIERS SHORT is not so much of a calamitous impossibility as it is an opportunity and challenge. The Agency was exalting "pivoting" as a means to deliver the mail without those carriers thus avoiding being out money for paid breaks and lunches. I don't know, you tell me, how do you win? Of course the office had bad time and money reports so, the manager was harassed right out the door. (Older guy)

When I was a kid we had guys that came through the neighborhood delivering circulars for a company called Dinwiddy. Even as youngsters we knew the difference between the mailman and the Dinwiddy man... I'm afraid the P.O. is trying to demean the letter carriers' position, status, and pay and create more circular delivers. I hope the postal employees will continue to stand up and fight this off.

What is going on now is a bloodless pogrom at the USPS. Older employees and limited duty are being purged first and in the midst of the melee first line managers are venting their spleens and settling old scores. Active union people and former EEO complainants are targets. It is all fueled by greed at the top and fear down the line.

What frightens me though is that laws are being broken, contracts violated, and decency, and truth are being kicked to the curb with no apparent accountability. For instance, the agency is responsible for conducting a complete and impartial investigation of the EEO complaint. But, the agency has played a game wherein its complaints investigators were ceremonially separated and turned into the NEEOISO. To appear to be a third party I suppose; however, the NEEOISO is not a third party and it is not impartial.

Typically, the Report Of Investigation contains the complainant's affidavit and two to three managers swearing denial and ignorance. Not very often will you see affidavits from craft employees and almost never will you see an affidavit from anyone who can corroborate the complainant.
Don't count on NEEOISO to fairly investigate your complaint. Obtain statements from witnesses yourself; have them sign them thus, "I am signing under the penalty of perjury."

Perhaps you'll want to make a Privacy Act Request for all your agency files as soon as you know there is going to be a battle. If you wait for "discovery" you'll be sorely disappointed and if you count on NEEOISO well, then you're Tweety counting on Sylvester. Good luck.

Bigmikec-
Great post and thanks for sharing that with us.
Remember when I filed my EEO action against both the manager and the postmaster for violations of 5USC and 29CFR, and the postmaster sat in the EEO hearing and blantantly said he didn't recognize those laws.

Well, he was promoted to district.
And guess what? There have been so many M-39 violations in our office with respect to route adjustments, and they don't care!!
The whole purpose of the route adjustments was to get routes to as close to 8 hours as possible. Over an 85 day span I have had (1),(ONE) 8 hour day.
Of course the union has filed grievances about all of it, because the routes were supposed to be reviewed after 60 days. I can bet the same principle will apply as well. They just don't care. It's total tyranny and authoritarianism, or you're out.
Carriers are realizing the overtime is good but they cannot handle the wear and tear it takes. Which results in more injuries and you're placed on the target list.

How do you win when you look at that on a national level? I can understand the P.O.'s problems with the economy and so on. But to deliberately be allowed to target people is wrong.

When fishing, if you get a nibble at a certain spot you will keep going back to that spot until you hopefully catch the fish. When the oig/mgmt unregistered posters throw out their idiocy, don't take the bait. Remember the line they use to attach their bait to is an unregistered post. If there are no nibbles they will eventually find another fishing hole.

/m6291
 /m6290
Ok SFO. The agency took 149 days to accept a formal complaint that I filed and dismiss another claim that they attached to it. (I think this is what they are saying). Real weird what they have done. So bizzare.
SFO did you send me an email? Is that what you are saying? Let me know. If you have sent me an email I have not received it yet, please send it again.
Thanks

Withdrawal of accommodation under ADA raises issue of pretext.

Withdrawal of a reasonable offer of accommodation after it has been accepted gives rise to an inference of pretext and intentional discrimination under the ADA. Valentine v. American Home Shield Corp., __ F. Supp. __, No. C 95-3030-MWB, 1996 WL 506506 (N.D. Iowa Aug. 30, 1996).
.

bigmikec /m6289

More than agreed. all office noticed that I am in the proceed of EEOC.
managment saw me like a s***, and walk away.
Just keep in mind, we are not in office for starting S*** too. (retaliation still coming for sure.)
managment got the authorities, but please used it properly, or we shall reply to any unfair practised as always.

Edited by author 11-10-2009 12:30 AM
Slingshot /m6290

My understand it should be dismiss before sent you a authorized to proceed with formal complaints, as per formal complaints procedure; after you send in formal complaints, your case will assign a investigator, you and agency got papers to fill out. then you will receive a outcome of this investigatives, along with two important papers; 1. proceed and requested for EEOC hearing in your areas or 2. drop your complaints.

You were seeing these info?

I have a question. After the complainant files a formal claim, if the agency is going to dismiss it, how long do they have to do so. Is there anywhere in the md110 (regulations) that covers this.
.

I spoke with an EEOC Administrative Judge today and her words firmly reinforced my long held belief that EEO complainants should abandon "anonymity" and broadcast their "participation" and or "opposition" to each department and division in their Post Office. And, I mean by use of certified return receipt mail or registered mail. Be able to show that managers in your office are aware of your EEO participation.

There is now, as there has long been, a pandemic of retaliation. Managers need only perjure themselves before a Judge or to an Investigator to defeat a charge of reprisal. An alarming number of long time immediate supervisors, Postmasters, and Station Managers are more than willing to deny the truth and like "Sgt. Schultz" falsely swear to know nutzing see nutzing and hear nutzing.

Management, not unlike a poisonous glob of mercury, shatters under pressure and rolls off in different directions... each feigning innocent ignorance. As if records of EEO litigants are not kept, as if they are not discussed, and as if each manager lives in their own little bubble blissfully unaware of the incidents and events occurring in their office and before their eyes. Only the credulity of the Commission allows this sham to thrive. So, if you file an EEO...if have participated before... make it known to management; take away their hidey hole. This is my modest suggestion.

I wouldn't do dat,would I?

"Democratic consultant says he got a warning from White House after appearing on Fox News."

hxxp://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-fox8-2009nov08,0,507227.story

Half Truths and Spin Meisters post here.

Enter at your own risk!

I love this forum. I can't say I love the need for it though. In my view, it exists because most of the contributors and readers have had their jobs, and therefore, their lives, threatened in some manner. Do we hate the Postal Service? I think not; it is actually a wonderful job.

But, by some odd twist of fate the old P.O. has fallen into the hands of those I call "bean counters and privateers." They create a downward pressure for miracles. They expect a carrier to deliver the mail as if traffic, accidents, delays, dogs, weather, and all the vagaries of work on the road and out of doors don't exist. They are trying to "standardize" operations as if postal workers are on a production line, but the work is not well-suited to that. On a production line each widget is the same and it goes in the same spot; not so at the post office where each "widget" is different and goes to a different place.

The top exerts pressure on the managers below and they, in turn, press the workers relentlessly. Targeted first are the "limited duty" people; why you ask, because they do not fit well in this Orwellian Postal Service. They have unique considerations and it is a problem for a manager to use them as "widgets" ergo, they must go if possible, welcome NRP.

The Postal Service is a wonderful job; the employees are well paid and well benefited... however, there is this level of malignancy that is like a dog chewing at its own leg. Mantled in authority, the bigots and the cruel are made free to prey upon those whom they disdain. The victims have certain rights and administrative machinery to fight back and thus you have this forum. A place where people meet to discuss their work problems and to learn and to teach. Of course, it is a free forum and it attracts not only those who seek to learn but also apologists for management.

One may come upon this forum and easily draw the wrong conclusion. It is not unlike a child watching the Vet treat his puppy. The child may think the Vet doesn't like the pup because he is holding it down and the pup is crying. The Vet may have to hurt the pup to heal it, but the child only sees the pain and not the care and love. The people here are not trying to hurt the Post Office, indeed, we are trying to save the Post Office and our place in it.

PEA and Slingshot are two of our very best "Vets." They are diligent in helping others... in sharing their experiences, and knowledge, and in researching to the benefit of all. Yes, we love the old P.O. and teaching its sometimes wayward representatives the rules, regs, and the law, as well as holding them to it, is not a bad thing. Inevitably, open discourse falls into ad hominem attacks...but we must realize that they distract and impede us and accomplish nothing.

Or this one:

Mailman killed Sherrif's Deputy,

"Authorities allege 49-year-old John Cahill of Braintree was speeding on Aug. 22 when his postal truck struck 45-year-old James Zupkofska of Weymouth. Zupkofska died later at South Shore Hospital."

://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20091030mailman_pleads_not_guilty_to_killing_jogger/srvc=home&position=recent

Edited by author 11-09-2009 12:37 AM
How do you like this one?

CARRIER REFUSED TO PICK UP BALLOTS

"LONGMONT — Longmont’s U.S. Postal staffers have been reminded that mail carriers must collect all ballots that voters put in their mailboxes to be delivered to elections officials, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall said Thursday.


Hall contacted Postal Service officials after a Longmont woman complained Wednesday that a mail carrier refused to accept the ballots the woman and her husband put in their mailbox for pickup.


Kathy Porter-Peden, who lives near 17th Avenue and Lashley Street, told the Times-Call that she didn’t know who the carrier was.


But she said he’d returned the ballots to their mailbox after drawing a circle around a printed reminder on the return envelope that says the voter must sign the back of the ballot envelope.


Porter-Peden said she and her husband, James, had signed the return envelopes but the carrier might not have realized that a flap on the envelope is designed to cover the voter’s signature."

hxxp://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=18955

Ex-OSHA appealed his firing.

"OSHA says Whitmore intimidated co-workers and made them feel unsafe at work. The agency began investigating Whitmore after a July 2007 confrontation with Joe DuBois, his supervisor. Whitmore said DuBois spit on him, so Whitmore stuck his foot in the office door and said he would "kick your ass" if DuBois did it again. DuBois has said that he didn't intentionally spit on Whitmore, and he didn't believe the effort to fire Whitmore was based on his criticisms."

"Whitmore said Wednesday. "Obviously I did that. And I've paid the price for doing that.""

Enough said?

Pivotman,
Don't be such a prick.Who are you to tell me what to say? If you don't like what I post go suck an egg.
pfffttt!You can't even write a decent English sentence.

SFO, I have no issue if she simply posted the link.My beef was she selectively made it looked like OSHA terminated him because he blew the whistle.

Paid leave is routinely done while one is being investigated.No more,no less.