EEOC Class Action Pending For Postal Employees Placed Under USPS National Reassessment Process

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note: I found this little nugget stuck in the middle of another EEOC case.

A class action complaint for injured on duty postal employees was certified by an EEOC Administrative Judge (AJ) on May 30,2008.  

In the case of Sandra McConnell, et al. v. United States Postal Service an AJ decision certified the following class:

All permanent rehabilitation employees and limited duty employees at the U.S. Postal Service who have been subjected to the National Reassessment Process (NRP) from May 5, 2006 to present, allegedly in violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The AJ certification decision recited evidence that the goal of NRP was to assign work to employees who had an approved compensable injury as determined by the Department of Labor. According to the decision, Phase 1 of NRP consisted largely of reviewing the files and medical records of all these employees; where needed requesting updated medical documentation from the employee; and verifying that current work actually being performed matched the current job offer. According to the decision, Phase 2 consisted largely of canvassing facilities to identify work necessary for operations and functions, attempting to match the employee with the necessary work, and if none is found, notifying the employee that no work was available.

The Postal Service filed an appeal from the certification decision, which is pending as of February 13, 2009.

More details will be posted as they become available.

 List of USPS Districts Currently Under Phase 2 of the National Reassessment Process

54 thoughts on “EEOC Class Action Pending For Postal Employees Placed Under USPS National Reassessment Process”

  1. as a letter carrier in an affluent suburb, i worked hard delivering mail. ive had 3 surgeries for repetative motion injuries.2on the right hand.i can barely use my right hand.i see so much fear now on my job. people are limping yet scared to report the injury.after almost 19 years i am saddened by the actions of the postal service/nrp.last suegery 4 months ago. no work available, cant work anywhere else.yet people are getting overtime pay to do our jobs. what a waste.

  2. I was first injured in 1998. I’ve had three surgeries related to the injury. After each surgery I was expected to come back to work in six weeks even though I could barely lift a telephone. The PO only cared that there was no lost work day related to the injury. Then after ten years of doing supervisors’ work someone figured out what fine manipulation and simple grasping meant. Now I work four hours a day and get paid for the other four from OWCP. But I still get told that OWCP could try to get me another job outside the PO. Who would hire a injured person who can only do four hours of work that consisted of using your hands? I guess I am more angry that the damage that going back to work before having a chance to truly heal is the reason I have to deal with NRP. I have read the McConnell suit and it doesn’t surprise me that there were over two hundred employees who found that they could return to full duty work when NRP was first introduced in her area. That is why there are so many people in the PO think all IOD people are fakers.

  3. I was IOD 9 times for same injury. Last IOD resulted in Management stating I could no longer carry my route. I filed 3 EEO cases and lost because management continually inappropriately framed the issues. All I requested was eight hours of work within my limitations and a swivel stool. I spent $26,000 in attorney’s fees for a $219.00 stool that the Department of Labor had to provide me because the USPS would not. All injured employees who have achieved MMI should read EL-307 and EL-505 and the ELM 540. I was assessed by the NRP and still do not have an 8 hour job. But they sure want to take credit for the stool that cost me $26000.00. 9 years later Management says I can carry the same route I was carrying when management said I could no longer carry my mail.

  4. CORRECTION, CLASS ACTION ATTORNEYS NAME IS THOMAS & SOLOMON IN ROCHESTER, NY, CONTACT EGRAHAM @ THE EMPLOYMENT ATTORNEY’S.COM FOR INFO. THE FIRM NAME AGAIN IS THOMAS & SOLOMON.

  5. thomas & sullivan in rochester new york is firm handling mcconnell v potter nrp class action. you can contact egraham @ the employment attorney’s.com. for info

  6. hey guys i am employee that has been injured on the job for sometime with a permanent impairment, i also want to let you know that i was fired for what the P. O. said i was frauding my injury. along with this, i was put in JAIL. my life was turned to hell, but i had a great union president, and he stood by me the whole time and along with my doctors, we WON!!! i am now a victim as some of you with the reassessement, and this is after a eeoc judge found the postal service not only discriminated but retaliated against me. i have hired an atty. and have to go through this again but feel it is worth it. I have gone to my local senator for some help, which i feel everyone needs to do. stop just sitting there and talking about it on this, and start doing some leg work. right letters, go down to your congress office, or senators. put some pressure on the post office someone needs to look at them. what they are doing is not legal. keeping this to your self is wrong, and nothing will ever get done!!!! as l far as those nice people who think they are the only one’s working hard, and the injured are not, my thinking is, people who say they are better then others normally are not as hard working as they may think. as to everyone else, who has been wronged GET GOING!

  9. Hearing# 520-2008-00053x Agency File # 140-0062-0+6. Got this from Apwu. Now can you tell me were to go to try to join the suit?

  10. my supervisor is the idiot that raised his hand to take over the NRP in our district. he’s told me to my face that he took my name of the list. i will never get a letter for reassesment. he’s going to make sure my working life is hell so go on standby and sit in breakroom for 8 hours a day. so, i did. i have documented everything he has said to me. i’ve had accepted owcp case since 1993. i have also worked 40+ hours per week for years. all of a sudden there is no productive work for me.
    while i sat in the breakroom on 353/standby for 3 days, i read books, brought in my laptop and surfed the world.
    i did that because he thought i’d get mad and go home. NOT!!! funny, on 3rd day i was released from breakroom jail and told to go back to work.

    EEO/OIG is in the works because an injured carrier has been swiping in on 354/standby for years but doing clerk work. that’s falsifying time card and he’s doing my work. it’s much more complicated than i will go into here but, though it will take time, the facts will come out and hopefully supervisor and PM will leave me and other injured workers alone.

  12. I almost forgot ( actually I did forget). When christmas overtime hits, I am suddenly able to handle the dbcs- on OT, of course. The supervisor puts me with his/her best clerk and I put the work off on him/her.

  13. I am a injury faker. I have a non scheme job in the city primary manual section. I get paid overtime doing paperwork. I also have a administrative badge even though I am a clerk so I can get in and out of the building as I please.
    I was allowed to work four hours a day OT in the slow summer months working non-committed mail. I didnt get V time, but the hours were moved so I still maxed out on the pay period I was on a two week vacation.

    I once angrily choked a fellow employee on the work room floor, for commenting that I seem to be above the rules concerning selling food to co-workers without getting in trouble for it.

    I am alowed to work in the case way back in the corner where no one can see how little I can do. We hide behind a wall of eastern APC’s and sit back there and talk all night. We work states mail after the DOV leaves , so the mail ain’t going out anyway.

  14. I faked my injury. I found that working in auto mation was too draining on my energies and preventing me from having the energy to work my other job. So I circumvented the senority system and there is some 60 year old working my job and I have taken his.

  15. I’m so sick and tired from these guys. When was the last time a rehab pivot?(never).If you can go out and hunt deer for two weeks, you can carry mail.I don’t feel sorry for these guys!

  16. The NRP program and excessing is an ineffective joke! After carrying mail for 20 years I developed bone spurs in both feet and right arm tendonitis.

    The NRP program forced me to work as a full-time Window Clerk, but remain in the Carrier craft.
    The APWU and the NALC did nothing to stop this action.

    It lead to my accepting the VERA, since i was getting constant harassing and lack of cooperation from the real Window Clerks, I was forced to work along side.

    The APWU and NALC have sold out and have become
    a weak excuse for a union. Their excuse was they had a grievance in process, so they were “held in abeyance” and couldn’t do anything.

    I glad I’m out of the Post Office and the NALC.
    I got paid on two grievances during my career.
    Both for the postal service violating the law
    regarding disability discrimination.

    The future of the PO will be backstabbing and excessing of employees, which will cause seniority wars amongst those who get bumped from their jobs. Too many supervisors, with little knowledge of the job, but who have relatives or friends in positions to help them, get promoted.
    The PO will go down as my all-time worse job I’ve held. I’m sure glad I’m out…..feels like I’ve been paroled from prison!

  17. They are still doing this to people in Western New York. I know someone that just had a NRP meeting this week. They are doing it slightly different now. They don’t kick you out on the first meeting, they let you think that they are actually trying to find work for you (you know that’s not the case). They are just pretending better. The USPS must feel quite confident about continuing this process, do you think they have the Union in their pocket?

  18. Boston LC I’m still looking for this case, someone out there must have the EEO Case # or the law firm that is representing McConnell v. Potter. Why hasn’t the person that posted this responded to what Case # he found it in? BOS, Boston LC, & Rose sound like you’ve been through what I have. We need to find out about the EEO Case mentioned. It is very odd that it can’t be located by the search engines.

  20. Again – as asked by Eany – can anyone find anything about this case?? I have searched a dozen ways. Is there a case number? Do we know that this case is for real? After 23 years of hard work I lost my job to the NRP and I have finally learned not to care what other people say about injured workers. They should be thankful for their blessings. and as besharpone says – thinking “but for the grace of God there go I”

  21. Sorry fellow usps employees, for being such a dumbass all these years!! As you all know, I earned my name by, yes it’s true, for being a dumbass. I was just in the last 10 years, my co workers started saying “Shut up you old dumbass” I haven’t known any different, I have just been following managements foot steps and learned from example!!!

  22. We all know how our fellow employees talk about injured employees. If you have been injured and end up with permanant damage from your injury or you are still recooperating Thank God years ago a law was passed to protect your job. Oh and by the way for all you who think they are faking it . How do you fake a MRI?
    On my tour we have 4 injured employees and they work hard and steady doing the jobs most of you don’t want to do. Boring handcasing, hand stamping, nixie, hang bagslabel racks etc. They ask these employees to hang Priority bags while the Priority clerks stand around and chit chat because they don’t have any mail to work yet. So the limited duty people who may have 25 trays of mail to hand stamp and sort through are told oh that is not important so go hang bags. Excuse me but isn’t this lame to have them stop working while they go hang bags so the people who are suppose to hang their bags are given socializing time. dah

  23. Most of those complaining are too worried about what their fellow employees are going to think about them.

    They are more worried about bein accepted than they are about their own well being. They are the same ones who come to work everyday sick, won’t take vacation because they have no life and they use the postal service for their social life.

    They show up for work everyday, but won’t do anything when they get there.

    They share all of their personal business with everyone and think that a fellow employee is a “friend” although they have no contact outside of the postal service and gossip and spread rumors about other employees, especially when they don’t know their business.

    They buy newspapers so that they can look up other employees who may have gotten in trouble, filed for bankruptcy, lost their come, gotten a DWI, just so that they can have something to gloat about, something that they can look at and say that there is someone else who has as miseable a life as they do.

    It makes them feel good. “Misery loves company”.

    These are the same one’s who will dog on injured workers.

    It makes them feel good to talk about how injured workers are faking because it helps take the focus off their miseable lives.

    Funny, but I always thought that I worked harder on limited duty than those who had no injury…lol.

    Most spend more time trying to get out of work than they do actually working. At least an injured worker has a reason for not working…or at least not doing the work that their bid requires.

    Now, if you want to call someone lazy, you might use the word on those who are perfectly healthy who actually get pissed at the supervisor when told to do his job.

    “Who me!!!!? “I was told that I better show up for work. No one told me that I actually had to do anything once I got here!”

    Yeah, call injured workers lazy if you want…lol.

  24. You know, the idiots who come here to make derogatory comments about injured workers are morons who are actually envious and jealous. They remind me of the two workers who were told by the supervisor to sit down.

    One was told to twittle his thumbs and the other was told to just sit and do absolutely nothing.

    The one who was told to twittle his thumbs started complaining because he had to sit there twittling his thumbs while the other was allowed to sit there doing absolutely nothing!!!

    Now, they both were sitting doing nothing, but one perceived the other to be doing even less, so he was jealous.

    That is how the postal service is. No one really works, but when on perceives someone doing even less, he is going to bitch and complain.

    If an injured worker walked in the door with one arm dangling by nothing but a tendon, there are those who will still swear that he is faking.

    Must be the mentality of postal workers. It seems to be the same no matter where you are.

    Many workers want to talk about supervisors, but they are not much better. They are constantly ratting out other employees and just because they are too stupid to understand their rights, too stupid to know how to exercise those rights, or too much of a butt kisser, don’t expect others to be like you.

    I try to live by this credo: “But for the grace of God, go I”.

    Those denagrating injured workers here very well might find themselves in the exact same situation one day. What will you say then? You will have some serious crow to eat.

    Some of you doing all of your talking are nothing but cowards. You come here and hide behind the internet but wouldn’t dare say this crap to the faces of those whom you want to belittle.

    That is why there are regulations in place fools!!! To protect injured workers!!!! Do any of you fools realize how tough it is to get an injury claim approved? You don’t just say, hey, I am injured, and they take your word for it.

    Getting a Federal Workers Comp claim approved is probably one of the, if not the toughest act one can accomplish within the federal system. Even still, the system is unfair to workers who are injured.

    As an injured worker who has lost all of the motion in his neck and have limited use of his shoulders, arms and upper back because of my employment, I say all of you who want to belittle injured workers can kiss my butt!!!!

  25. the shop stewards want to get off of the work room floor, so they can sit in the union office doing nothing, get rid of them and all of the stupid supervisors ,

  26. Unfortunately there are very, very many disgruntled and hateful employees at USPS. I got hurt at work and you are very wrong, we are not all useless trash that needs to be thrown out. I guess I should have worked like many of the “good” people and I probably wouldn’t have been hurt. By “good” (you wining people) I mean the ones that do the minimum, call in constantly, take extra breaks, hang out in the smoke areas for overtime, etc. I got hurt working and am getting more than jerked off by idiots who follow no moral, ethical, or federal laws; but someday/somehow I will get a lawyer and get true justice. Unfortunately, these cases take years and many will not take a case even when you have the proof and USPS legal section knows that. To answer some of the questions here about cases, just click on the sidelines and you can read the cases which are also listed under EEOC.gov and read ELM 303 and others to see what the USPS ignores entirely. I will not even go into the union because from what I read many of you are lucky and your reps do something other than struggle for power as in our case here. Furthermore, write to your congressman/woman or senator who can and do help, it is free and by federal law they must help you in these type cases.

  28. hey, edith i agree and with you about all the dysfunctional stuff……at least, us dysfunctional types can succeed somewhere hahaha

  29. One thing I’ve found working in the post office is that 100% of those who “know” that injured workers are faking it don’t have a shred of proof, have not done medical examinations of those supposdly faking it, and aren’t qualified to render any medical judgements.

  30. for all you dummies who put up with miserable life let me say this any mailhandler who push and pull all day should have an ache and for some much more pain but only an idiot will not speak up when hurt and in pain report your injury so you can try to have some sort of quality in your health and life.

  31. What is the EEO Case # for the McConnell, can’t find it in any search. I know about Walker and Glover has anyone found McConnell #? What case number was this stuck in the middle of? Thank you.

  33. Want to hear something funny, the head NRP coordinator in San Francisco has been on limited duty since day one. Go figure….

  34. Latina Time- about time you admitted it.

    At my facility the union president is a rehab. But curiously he is the only one who never has to go on standby. When that time comes he always has sudden “urgent” union business. On Tour 1. It’s good to be in the plant managers pocket.

  35. 1buc, your comments show your intelligence, or actually the lack of. I have a repetitive stress injury for over 14 years, and been harassed by mamangement, union, & some fellow craft employees. I work hard, always have. Been on restrictions on & off. You better pray you really don’t get hurt, or you’ll find out what we mean by all the crap we have to take.

  36. 1buc #10, it is people like you who give the truly injured a bad name. You purely sound lazy. A personal thank you to IOD. I appreciate your comment.

  38. if any of the IOD people have been at meetings after meetings with the NRP do you think that 5 to 6 people should come into a room read from a script and tell you that after you have been doing needed work for years that the P.O. does not have a job for you I have been placed on standby for months and watch others do my job on overtime for months you talk about a waste of money someone should be held accountable for letting this go on for months

  39. I’ve noticed that most people at the post office are idiots. I will miss none of these a**holes when I leave in 5 months on FULL RETIREMENT.

  40. I’ve routinely found that many co-workers who ‘hate’ people on rehab or light duty are the most vindictive people in the universe. They’re the people pleasers, the addicts who want and need continual validation from management that they’re good little workers for putting up with chronic pain after a work-related injury..a pat on the head is all these folks need..not slackers like ‘those’ people…and I’d imagine that over half the postal workforce falls into this category so it’s not a wonder that we see and hear about things like this… These same people hate the injured who speak up..wishing they’d have the guts to do it but their lack of self-esteem and self-confidence either makes them bullies, informants, back stabbers and worse. I’m convinced that because of the nature of postal work..fast and highly repetitive … the post office attracts people with obsessive/compulsive disorders and perfectionists…possibly highly addictive types who are prone to working in dysfunctional environments, have a highly dysfunctional family life and like disrupting everyday functions..they enjoy the toxic environment, they need negative conflict because they are indeed toxic, they need to feed it.. as notated by the negative responses toward injured co-workers. Again, this is not surprising…just recognize it as an unnatural event but extremely widespread, especially in most ‘factory’ settings.

  41. I been faking a injury the day I joined. It sure beats working for a living. So I kiss the boss’s ass, I gotta do what I gotta do to get by.

  43. You can work for the PO for over 20 years and bust your butt doing the best you can do every day, then you get injured for working too hard. Management, union, coworkers all harass injured workers. Not all are faking, but agree some are. Give a break to those of us who have worked very hard and were truly injured!!

  44. if the P.O. thinks that the rehab employees enjoys being what they are, they are wrong. The NRP should be ashamed they are trying make the rehab employee retire, I would like to see some of the NRP people walk in the shoes of the rehab employee. This is far from a walk in the park. As for the people in the P.O. that have been lucky enough not to have an IOD and thinks everyone is a fraud good luck if someday this happens to you. Still in pain fighting for my JOB that I had for years

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