By Susan M. Camey,
National APWU Human Relations Director

A priority function of the Human Relations Department is to provide information, guidance and advice to APWU local and state representatives in order for them to assist our injured members. Each year nearly 84,000 new claims are filed with OWCP by postal workers. We account for over half of the new OWCP claims filed annually by federal employees. This equates to nearly 10 % of the entire postal workforce, which means on a percentage basis more postal employees are filing new OWCP claims than use the grievance procedure.

That being said, the President's Commission has targeted injured workers with recommendations that would relieve the USPS of millions of dollars in workers' compensation costs, placing the financial burden on workers and their families. Their recommendations include imposing a 3-day waiting period before we'd be eligible to receive continuation of pay (COP), limiting wage loss compensation to 2/3 of our basic pay and forcing injured workers into retirement.

Think you can stop reading because this doesn't affect you? You saw the figures, every day we are each at risk of being injured on the job. If you haven't been, consider yourself fortunate; but you should never consider yourself to be exempt. So now that you understand this does affect you, we need to understand that simply reading these recommendations does nothing to explain the major impact these changes will have on us. To understand their grandeur we will have to look below the surface.

Currently there is no waiting period for COP. According to postal statistics, on average injured workers with disabilities are only using 66.3 hours of COP. In these instances our COP benefits would be slashed by 37%.

Limiting wage loss compensation benefits to 2/3 of our regular basic pay is an outright attack on postal families. Postal workers with qualifying dependents currently are entitled to 3/4 of their basic pay. I suspect those of us without dependents can expect a reduction as well but we will have to wait to read the fine print.

Despite age discrimination laws that currently protect postal workers from forced retirement, the Commission seeks transitioning injured workers into retirement rather than permitting us to claim our Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) benefits.

Many of us who are eligible to retire don't because we can't afford to live on our retirement annuity or because we would have nothing else to regularly occupy our time. It is a fact that retirees without a plan often feel unproductive, become depressed and ill. Then there is this to consider, many of us who are eligible to retire have not yet attained our maximum annuity. With retirees living 30 years beyond retirement, this is a long term financial blow. And finally on the issue of forced retirement, in these instances retirees would be unable to seek other employment due to the medical restrictions that resulted from workplace injuries.

So how many of us could survive on unjust pay cuts of this magnitude? Most of us are just getting by as it is, living payday to payday.

The Commission's recommendations permit the Service to divorce themselves of their "renewed commitment" to safety. Perhaps the Commission should be recommending the reimplementation of our OSHA Ergonomic Standards rather than punishing workers for their injuries. Certainly these Standards would have prevented workplace injuries, illnesses and diseases and reduced compensation costs had they not been dismantled by their appointer.

Finally, their recommendations are disparaging to postal employees, barring us from receiving the same FECA benefits to which all other Federal employees would still be entitled.

We have a major battle to fight against the anticipated but certain legislation which will be forthcoming based on the Commission's recommendations. It is very important that we focus on the priority issues that will dramatically affect us; our rights to all collective bargaining, our opposition to work sharing, protection of universal service and rates. But we must remain vigilant not to allow our FECA benefits to fall through the cracks or to serve as the sacrificial lamb. When engaging in baffle we must educate our opposition as well as our allies on why we are opposed to any give backs of our FECA benefits and why we demand accountability of the USPS for a safe working environment.