The Local Line
“A PPA Award
Winning Publication”
The Official Voice Of The Northwest Illinois Area Local
American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO
194 W. Lake Street Elmhurst IL 60126
Phone: 630-833-0088 Fax: 630-833-0248
Jackie Engelhart – President Alan Czerwinski - News Director
January 24, 2006
Local Update by: President Jackie Engelhart
Information
Meeting
The quarterly
Information Meeting for the Northern Illinois District (NID) was held at Carol Stream
on January 17, 2006. The meeting was coordinated by Human Resources Manager Phyliss
Lingenfelser and led by District Manager Lynn Smith. The purpose of this
meeting is to share information with the unions concerning the business side of
USPS and the NID. I would like to share what was shared with us.
E.Lynn Smith
Mr. Smith started
out by saying that the employees are gold and should be treated like gold. He stated
he has been spending a lot of time away from his family to attend meetings with
every supervisor in the district to impress upon them that the employees should
be treated well. Mr. Smith then proceeded to talk about how the District will
be implementing a program to separate employees who cannot do the job they were
hired for. He stated the Postal Service cannot afford to pay two people to do
one job, and that each employee costs approximately $17,000 dollars in benefits.
We were told the “USPS/OWCP Rehabilitation
Initiative”, also known as the Outsourciug/Outplacement Pilot Program,
will begin in the NID within
months. “Out” is exactly what USPS wants to do to employees who cannot do their
regular job because they were injured on their regular job! We were given more
information from the ND Manager of Injury Compensation Gilbert Lopez. Mr. Lopez presented information from a hand out
we were given concerning results of the pilot program is in other districts. The
first pilot site was Long Island, NY Out of 54 employees 36 “either returned to
full duty, or increased productivity or elected retirement.” 18 were “referred
to OWCP for vocation placement.” In Flushing, NY, out of 87 employees, 75 “either
returned to full duty, or increased productivity; or elected retirement.” 12 employees
were “referred to OWCP for vocational placement.” In Brooklyn, NY 194 employees
were identified and 152 “either returned to full duty, or increased
productivity or elected retirement.” 42 were “referred to OWCP for vocational
placement.” In San Diego, CA, out of 312 employees, 97 “either returned to full
duty, or increased productivity or elected retirement.” The data was not
available for number of employee referred for vocational placement this
district.
NID Numbers
Per the handout,
“NID Data from the Summary Report for Fiscal Year 2006, 589 employees have some
type of restrictions, of those 137 have returned to full duty and 413 are working
in productive operations, 9 are working in non-productive operations (LDC 68
& 69), 30 are case files pending review. These are employees with approved
on the job injury claims and do not include light duty. We were told the
“non-productive” employees may be targeted first.
Questions?
1. What
will happen to USPS employee benefits as a result of being place under the OWCP
Vocational Programs? (they will not be treated like gold)
2. What is USPS obligation to employees injured on the
Job?
Per the Employee
& Labor Relations Manual (ELM) section 546.14 “Obligation” “When an employee has partially overcome a
compensable disability, the USPS, must make every effort toward assigning the
employee to limited duty consistent with the employee’s medically defined work
limitation tolerance. In assigning such limited duty, the USPS should minimize
any adverse or disruptive impact on the employee.”
3. What is Vocational Rehab.?
Per OWCP Injury
Compensation Manual for Federal Employees CA-810, “An employee with extended disability
may be considered for rehabilitation services if requested by the attending
physician, the employee, or agency personnel. In addition, OWCP will routinely
consider a case for rehabilitation services if the agency cannot reemploy the
employee.”
4. Why would USPS separate/fire employees injured on
the job?
USPS is a business. Just
as United Airlines (and others that Followed) dumped employee pensions, USPS is
making a real effort to dump employees. Just as United is no longer responsible
for employee pensions, USPS would no longer be responsible for benefits for
their employees. They would retain the salary level they earned at the time of
placement/separation. USPS would no longer be responsible for health insurance,
life insurance, and retirement contributions. The employee would not be a
postal employee and could not make further contributions to their retirement plan.
(Postal union rights would be eliminated) USPS is trying to save money by
dumping injured employees on OWCP. This will save money and improve their finances.
The District Finance Manager reported that first class volume and revenue
continue to decline, while costs continue to rise. The salary and benefits of
employees is the largest cost and USPS must continue to be more efficient.
5. Who Should be Concerned?
All Postal
employees should be concerned. For management to say employees are gold and
then talk about separating employees injured on the job is cause for concern.
For those of us who are not injured, that could change tomorrow. You could become
injured at any time. If that injury becomes long-term or permanent, and you
cannot perform your regular job, you too could be subject to “Vocational
Rehabilitation”.
6. Is Postal Work Available?
There is still
plenty of work available for injured employees. If employees who could return
to then job did so, there should be more than enough work for the injured employees.
The unions will certainly use all available means to defend our injured
employees.
Voice of the
Employee
Lynn Smith told us
NID’s scores on “Voice of the Employee” are at the bottom for the Great Lakes Area.
He asked that the unions not discourage employees from filling out these
surveys. He asked why we ask our employees not to participate. Many union leaders
in the room gave strong statements on why they are against VOE., and they all sounded
very familiar. The issues affecting the workplace environment are not being
addressed, and they are only getting worse. As USPS continues to cut staffing, employees
are being pushed harder to make up for the reduction. It is also harder to get
leave and to be off on the holiday schedule. We have an aging work force and
this combination of factors is creating a worsening morale problem. (Add to
this the fact that employees will now be scared to death to get injured on the
job.) I spoke with an old friend of mine at Palatine the other day and she told
me (without prompting) that morale is way down. I told her I would love to hear
from more employees on this subject. VOE asks the questions management is concerned
about and it’s a national survey, I suggest that senior management meet with
groups of employees if they really want to know why morale is low. Do they want
to know what is wrong or do they want the surveys filled out? I encourage
employees to write statements about what is going on the workroom floor and
forward them to me. This does not have to be signed, but should include your tour
and facility. VOE=Union.
50-50 Drive ends
January 31st.