A lot to decipher Dave. I have nothing against the injured. However, the PO needs to put something in place to offset the problems with so many injured. Perhaps a review of why these injuries happen. Understaffed on the machines and supervisors demanding so much is one problem. Again, if the injured have bid assignments and can not work it (legitimately) who fills in for them? Doing a job daily that requires 10 people to work safely and only 5 are available all suffer. Those hurting with injuries and those doing double work to compensate for the shortage. It's a no win situation for everybody. To sum it up, management sucks because of their deficiencies in managing. It ain't that hard folks to figure this thing out!!!!!

Edited by author 11-06-2009 07:57 AM
Fair assessment. No mention was made of any comparison to fraud but have you ever seen anywhere at the post office exactly how much money the post office ever spends in any time period relating to the arrest and conviction of fraudualent worker's comp claimants?
The accidents came long after I was a steward , safety captain, or anything else. I was 30 years old when I went to work for the post office and it took 15 years of 10 and 12 hour days to wear me completely out and I worked roughnecking in the oil field, offshore and on shore and a dozen frieght hauling a dock related forms of employment and have even worked 5 different jobs at the same time, while going to college.
This "off the floor" stuff you allude to doesn't apply to me in any form. I never bid a job which was any easier than continually unloading 45 and 53 foot trailers until my back said goodbye.
I unconcerned what your status is because I was only offering a hint at what kind of anonymous, invisible, "poster on the internet, former postal employee" I was and person I still am, in spite of my unplanned, life changing and future compromising, workplace injuries have managed to assert.
I too, would love to see both, a statistical and demographic, service-wide, general accounting, which would very clearly and accurately expose the true safety conditions withgin the postal service and the whole fedral government.
FEHB Plan Participants pay for insurance which more often than anyone I knowof realizes, is directly impacted by FECA Claim entitled medical treatments.
Safety in the federal government and the post office is INCOMPLETE. Employees are hurt every single day yet do not file FECA claims. They are mistakenly afraid. These people go to their FEHB doctors for treatments and many continue to work the same damn jobs which will eventually cripple them and they attempt to do this unnoticed. I noticed.

The fedral government and the post office need to pay their bills. Not working and retired former fedral employees living on fixed incomes.

This matter is entirely larger than a few words on the internet to a forum of people who mostly want to "vent" or stroke themselves, while of course, respecting those genuinely concerned and unselfish contributors to the betterment of fellow postal workers and the postal worklife.

Think about it real big.

Compare FEHB Plan Treatments with FECA claimed injuries. Similar rather than different and this is hardly rocket science.

Dave Kirtley

Six claims? Six claims while serving as a steward, safety captain, and every committee under the sun. Without personally knowing you but looking at your posted career resume it appears you preferred to be "off the floor" instead of working in the craft. You are obviously an intelligent individual but I doubt you hold any medical degrees to comment on what others are physically capable of. In closing while nobody claims that "all" are faking lets also not proclaim that injury fraud or "milking duty status" does not exist. In fact I would love to see a comparison on a percentage basis of employees of the USPS versus those employed at UPS or FEDEX who are currently out on comp or performing jobs with medical limitations. (I would wager a small fortune on which company has the higher percentage with limitations).

Which is worse. The injured postal employee who hides their legitimately FECA entitled, workplace injury, who goes to their FEHB Plan doctor for treatment, which the premium costs are raised for all federal employees who particiapate in the federal insurance plans. The federal government, post office, et al., ends up getting a free ride at the expense of the "honest" FECA entitlees who DON'T file FECA claims. ( All federal employees! )
We work around these people everyday at the post office. Many of them suffer from chronic pain and have to take medication simply to tolerate their postal jobs. These people often engage in self-righteous, "holier-than -thou" conversations which denegrate and demonstrate extreme prejudice to legitimately injured fellow employees who exercise their FECA entitlement just as any other employee would use their sick or annual leave. ( I retired with a ZERO sickleave balance and never went to work with anything contagious so I could make you, your kids, and the rest of the world sick, just because I was "afraid!" )
For the people who are fortunate enough to have avoided such scenarios: I hope you never become injuured and have to make a choice between "filing a FECA claim" or "not filing."
It is always easier to talk about something you know nothing about but it is always another story when you have experienced that which you so freely become an expert about.
Filing a FECA claims is difficult under the best of circumstances. Good doctors are somewhat impossible to find ( or even keep ), paper trails wear out relationships faster than anything with doctors who will see a patient "conditionally."
The myths and rumors surrounding FECA claimants are largely false, with many exceptions. I never worried because I had nothing to hide and still don't. I've have always personally felt the ones who were concerned may very well have provided someone with reason to question their honesty or whatever. I gave 8 hours of work for 8 hours of pay and at least worked harder than the worst employee, so I could live with my contributions to my employment.
I have a personal problem with hippocrits and wannabees. Nevertheless, I am more focused and personally concerned with more employees exercising their legitimate FECA entitlement combined with their: "legitimately, causally-related, workplace injury."
I will allow the cannibals to eat each other over their self-righteous opinion on things that do not directly affect them. They are going to run their mouths anyway. Let them, but don't waste your time on their empty , mean spirited, soulless observations. Let them fight the mirrors.
More employees are legitimately injured than most people ever stop to consider.
Would you give up the days off it took you 6 or more years to get and the duties you are now bid to, because you filed a FECA claim? Most employees don't. They keep working the very job that hurt them and they get worse, often much worse, then they file a FECA claim as a last resort to protect their livelihood, since in very, very many instances. I am personally familiar with after retiring as a 28 year Mailhandler, these very people can no longer pass an employment physical even to greet people at the doors of a Walmart and they cannot even handle phone calls consistently enough to warrant anyone to hire them.
I truly and honestly hope you never speak from personal experience because it will provide you with an honesty you will never know otherwise.

Respectfully,

Dave Kirtley
6 Active FECA Claims ( all degenerative and slowly pushing me toward a wheelchair )
Former "dumb-ass" Safety Captain, Union Steward, EEO/Advisory Committee MH REP/ 55 Adopted Employee Suggestions/Good Old Boy/Mr. Employee Involvement/Worn Out, Brokedown/ Honest/FECA Claimant/ who still cares about helping other people everyday. H.O.P.E.

Whatcha Gonna Do?

to /m5792 - that person is an undercover postal inspector/oig. Beware!

must know someone higher up.

We have a person who never works. Was hired and worked a few weeks and then became light duty but only came in a few times a week and now is never there and always on the schedule as on leave. Yet, I (A career employee for decades) even call in because I am really sick very rarely and get a third degree and want my dr. excuse. How does that person get away with it?

Most people that I knew that got disability retirement had to work on it for years. You have to be VERY patient. Once in awhile, but not very often, one will go right through and be approved. But just because a supervisor is giving someone a hard time is hardly a reason to be approved for disability retirement, but I don't blame them for trying. Good luck on that.

Getting disability retirement is not easy. This lady on our job applied for it. She has to prove that she can not do her job. Doctor report after report. She was hit by a forklift and was injured. Not severely hurt, but none the less hurt. The only reason she is trying to get this is because she does not have enough years or the age to retire and the dogs, um I mean supervisors are giving her a hard time. Read any of the forums on disability retirement and see the headache it can be. I wish the light/limited duty the best of luck. It will only get worse with these clowns in charge.

gonzo-
Yes they are looking to thin the workforce too but if IOD receive OWCP or disability retirement the PO still pays.

yes snowed you are correct. some people have mri proof and the injuries are really there.

point of sending IOD home is PO don't pay them anymore and there's another job to be abolished.

How is it good management to send an IOD home to get paid for doing nothing when you can get some productive work out of him?

Edited by author 11-04-2009 08:45 PM
Bubba, I believe you are right. It's not a "miracle," but a decision to make the best of it.

litedude-
What an unhappy soul you are. If you're not already you aught to be management, you'd fit right in.

Edited by author 11-04-2009 08:34 PM
What do you mean /m5781, somebody stared at you in church for sitting in their seat? At my church, the old farts will come and tell you to get up and move. I guess that's why we don't get a lot of return visits.

 some of the lite duty people dont experience a miracle. they are trying to find a way to continue to gain their much earned retirement. the mail has changed over the years. gone are the days of mail coming in from floor to ceiling. now its on rolling stock or pallets. or working a moving belt. no one who actually has an injury loses it they just endure the pain so they can feed their family.