Tim McKenna
Wisconsin State Board
WISCONSIN
STATE OF THE STATE
Wisconsin Area Mail Processing Studies (AMPS). The Postal Service announced in September the possibility of closing up to 300 processing centers around the country with 4 of those facilities being located in Wisconsin. Eau Claire, Wausau, La Crosse and still possibility on the chopping block, Oshkosh, are all being studied and considered for possible closure by the Postal Service with Eau Claire and La Crosse’s mail being processed in the St. Paul facility and Wausau and Oshkosh’s mail being trucked to Green Bay for processing. At this point these are studies and considerations only. This is an ongoing process that will involve local input, congressional hearings, and proceedings before the Postal Regulatory Committee (PRC) and discussions at the bargaining table during the ongoing National Negotiations. If you have never contacted your elected officials in Congress now is the time! Speak up now or it may be too late. Call or better yet, WRITE A LETTER to your Congressional representative opposing these closings and the relaxing of the service standards and demand that he/she sponsor or support House Resolution (H.R.) 1351, introduced by Congressman Steven Lynch of Massachusetts. This bill will provide the Postal Service with much needed relief including repealing the burdensome pre funding of future Retirees Health Benefits Fund (RHBF) that is already overfunded. The bill will also recalculate the pension surplus and transfer the billions of dollars that exist in the CSRS fund and move it back to the Postal Service to provide financial relief and eliminate the need for the Postal Service to make any more payments into the RHBF. Part of this surplus money also would be used as a massive employee “buy out” or incentive for those that may be eligible to retire.
Deems Desirable. Section 531.361 of the ELM governs the Postal Service’s ability to require an employee to submit documentation to support the use of sick leave. This section of the ELM states that a supervisor may accept an employee’s explanation for the absence if it is 3 days or less. Medical documentation or other acceptable evidence of an employee’s incapacity or need to care for a family member is required for 3 days or less only when the employee is on restricted sick leave or “when the supervisor deems documentation desirable for the protection of the interest of the Postal Service.” Recently, the Postal Service locally has implemented the Deems Desirable option as the automated call in system no longer has us talking to a supervisor or general clerk when calling in to report an absence. We now are trying to communicate with a computerized telephone system that contains deems desirable function or settings that are being activated to tell certain employees to bring in medical documentation upon their return to work. It has been agreed at the National level in a step 4 agreement that “if a supervisor determines that medical documentation or other acceptable evidence of incapacitation is desirable for the protection of the P.O. it must be made on a case by case basis, and must be consistent with the provisions on ELM 513.361 and may not be arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable.” Management may not make a blanket decision to require all employees who call in on a particular day, regardless of individual circumstances as that would go beyond the intent of 513.361 of the ELM.
A recent National arbitration award issued by Shyam Das “provides a useful description of this provision. Das stated that the “deems desirable” option is appropriately used by postal management only when it doubts the validity of a call in by the employee. Historically, this provision has been limited to certain circumstances that are relevant only to particular employees. For example, if an employee asks for a day off, but that request is denied, and the employee calls in sick anyway for the same day, that may provide a reasonable basis on which the PO could require documentation. Similarly, if an employee displays a pattern of calling in sick the day after pay day, or if the employee uses sick leave in connection with holidays, management may be able to use the deems desirable language to require documentation in those limited circumstances.”
Another important subject revolves around how the “deems desirable” option relates to leave under the FMLA. To obtain unpaid leave under the FMLA, especially with regard to intermittent leave, the FMLA certification itself is sufficient and the PO may not use deems desirable option to deny unpaid FMLA leave. But the Das Award makes clear that, if an employee wants to be paid on his/her FMLA leave days by using sick leave, the employee must satisfy the governing ELM provisions, including ELM 513.361. The rules for when documentation may be required by management under the FMLA are the same as for all sick leave requests. If anyone needs further explanation or has any questions concerning the deems desirable issue, please don’t hesitate to ask your steward.
In Solidarity;
Tim McKenna
Wisconsin State Executive Board
