Grieving USPS OWCP Mistakes
NALC's Spring 2004 Activist publication titled "Grieving Management's OWCP Mistakes" is a 15-page
"how-to" on how to griev and protect yourself when you sustained an on-the-job injury. If you are a shop steward, Formal Step A or even a Step B representative NALC's publication is what you need to know and learn about the laws and their implementing regulations designed to protect letter carriers from the adverse financial consequences of an on-the-job injury.
NALC's Spring 2004 Activist publication is about 7 years old. Some of the handbook and manual cites need to be updated. For example, the ELM has been updated several times since 2004. If you want to view archived editions of the ELM please select this link to the USPS ELM Archives web page. You can download the
most recent edition of the ELM then go to the this
link.
Making sure you get paid when you sustained an on-the-job injury is very important to us.
The law is known as the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, or FECA. It is codified at 5 United States Code 81 and its implementing regulations are found at 20 Code of Federal Regulations 10. You can find 5 U.S.C. Chapter 81 and 20 C.F.R. Part 10 by selecting this link. You will also find 5 CFR Part 353
- Restoration To Duty From Compensable Injury and 5 CFR 353.301
- Restoration Rights.
To read information about the USPS policies and procedures for reporting injuries to the OWCP for determining choice of physician, and for paying medical bills to contract physicians for the initial treatment of job-related first aid injuries select this link to
MI EL-540-91-1.