Postal Employees

Never forget the title of the 3971.

Management will only use the "request" part.

You are not requesting FMLA leave. You are "notifying" them of it.

Remember to note when you first made mgmt aware of this. Because they will claim this was not proper notice. It would have been best if you had a disapproved 3971 from weeks ago. I don't recall if you do.

FMLA does require as much notice as possible, which you satisfied. But any sick leave can be ZERO notice. It all depends on when you knew.

You put the FMLA number on the 3971 on the appropriate spot. That is all you give the local manager.

And even if it is not approved yet, you check the FMLA box and that is all. All the puppet manager does regarding FMLA on a 3971 is to input it in the system. Then HRSSC does the rest. If the locals have issues with suspected abuse of FMLA, there are procedures they can follow. But you locals in this case are just people who put your FMLA in the TACS system.

And, yes, if they give you LWOP or AWOL they will be in violation of FMLA laws. And you notify the union to file a grievance. And you take of your FMLA issues in addition to the union acting.

I don't recall all the details, but I think in this case both spouses work for the USPS. If so, and if the USPS wants to play games, the spouse not operated on could consider if maybe they are needed to take care of their spouse who was denied FMLA for surgery. Then put in a 3971 for FMLA SLDC. You have 80 hours available per leave year. I would stick it to them just to prove I could. It would be worth paying a doctor $35 or whatever they charge to fill out FMLA paperwork. Most surgeons would love for the spouse to care for the patient for a couple of weeks and could fill out the forms in a way that would be difficult to deny.

You don't need it in advance. You can call in and use it if you find you are suddenly needed. Just say sick leave dependent care, fmla, on the call or 3971. HRSSC would send the paperwork to you if the supervisor properly inputs FMLA. Then you have 10 days after receipt of the paperwork to get it filled out and submitted. If the supervisor does not input FMLA and you get no paperwork, that is on management.

Find a good lawyer, make the PM and supervisors pay for their stupidity.

Eeo. Eeo the postmaster. Just grieve any interim letters. Call in. Use fmla case number. If she gets an ii. Drs note. Fmla. Should be fine.

I just thought I would add something from my experience and perspective. Management pretty much gets a pass regarding FMLA violations. Any search for justice or punishment will likely be disappointing. Because they have a history of getting away with FMLA violations and the upper managers protect them. It is not like the upper managers were not doing the same things and worse earlier in their career--and their winking at their subordinates doing it with impunity is also a horrible thing.

The threats in the workplace is a much easier avenue because no one wants to be on record of dismissing complaints. Because we all know that something bad can happen at any time. And it is often "the quiet ones" who explode. So you never know what to expect or from whom. Managers are afraid to be on record of ignoring or not taking seriously complaints in this area. With FMLA they can throw the complaint in the trash and never have it bite them later. They cannot know that regarding workplace atmosphere complaints because they never know when something will happen that cannot be swept under the rug. It does not matter how much a manager may hate an employee. If there has been a complaint, they have to smile through gritted teeth. It is one of the best ways to make managers hate their jobs or their poor decision to threaten an employee (especially when they involve other employees in the personal business of coworkers).

If you ever saw the training tapes shown to Postmasters, you would think they would never speak of the personal business of employees. According to the video, they will be threatened by their superior until they peed their pants and would know they would be fired if it ever happened again. That is my description of the video I saw. So if you get such things out in the open and on the record (written complaint), managers can be in a precarious position even if their boss hates you as much or more.

FMLA only guarantees you protected leave. It does not guarantee paid leave. Any leave you take must still meet postal pay policies. That is the current stand of the post office on paid leave and therefore the PM is not falsifying anything. If the PM disapproves the leave, she still has to account for the employee's time away from work. It will be entered as LWOP according to this thread. That's not falsification in any way.

The idea of unpaid leave at the employee's choice was because many people don't have 12 weeks of paid leave available in ANY year. So they really needed that provision for their protection/benefit.

Since Postal employees may have enough paid leave, I believe the intent of the M-01866 was to clarify that postal employees may choose to use their earned paid leave even though it was not guaranteed in the general FMLA rules. And, of course, FMLA also gives the postal employees the new choice of LWOP for an approved condition.

I would like to know how this has worked out when the union has had to fight managers who want to harm postal workers with LWOP while hiding behind rules that they apply on a whim based on whether they like the employee or not.

And I would contend that a manager does not like someone if they are threatening them that they won't like their new reality at work after the manager also spoke to coworkers of the employee.

My point is/was that the employee is only entitled to LWOP under the law, not paid leave. Therefore it is not falsification if the PM denies paid leave and uses LWOP. However it may or may not be a contractual violation and therefore is a grievable offense.

So we checked her Virtual Timecard & her PM did input her for LWOP Family Medical Leave. Is there any way we can get this reversed before the pay period ends this Friday? I've seen a lot of conflicting information here in regards to this. Is this a labor relations issue? An HR issue? Should we call our district labor or HR, or call HRSSC?

Its Christmas time, and it isn't like we absolutely need this paycheck, but of all times of the year for her to be missing money, even if we get it back after a grievance.. I'd just like to have it fixed before the pay period ends.

Any advice?

I found this older thread on the same issue. Sorry this BS goes on at the PO but get the NBA on board asap. I'm also taking FMLA for surgery on Monday. I know it's during the holiday but it's taken 7 months to get to this point with the surgeon. I expect they will try to LWOP me also.
https://forum.federalsou...s&t=41181#post448483