On May 5, 2014, the Postal Service mailed to RJ Pittman (aka Edmond Walker) EEO class members a Claim Form and Release. Buried in the Release are some severe consequences to be aware of. Pittman EEO class members consist of disabled employees in permanent rehabilitation assignments/limited duty positions whose duty hours during the period from 3-24-2000 to 12-31-2012 were restricted in violation of the Rehabilitation Act, e.g. they were improperly denied straight time hours and overtime.
The Release says, “If any labor union has filed, or files in the future, any grievance(s) (Step 2 or higher) and/or arbitration(s) making claims substantially similar to those made in this Claim for conduct during the class period, I will instruct the union to withdraw any such claims pending at any level of the grievance-arbitration process. In the event that any labor union disregards my instructions, I shall refuse to accept any remuneration or relief for such claims which may be ordered as a result of any such grievance. In the event that I nonetheless receive such remuneration, I shall refund that remuneration to the Agency within 14 days of the receipt of such benefits. The repayment of such funds shall not be a basis for opening or reopening any claim arising from my employment with the Agency through the date that I sign this Release Form. The term ‘remuneration’ shall include, but not be limited to, pay of any kind, annual leave and sick leave. The term ‘relief’ shall include, but not be limited to, restoration of employment with the USPS.”
Note that the employee is waiving restoration of employment with the USPS! The total amount of money to be divided among 40,000 potential claimants is $12 million. Assuming that only half of the potential claimants file a claim, that is an average of $600 each, a pittance for a twelve-year period of disability discrimination! But it gets worse.
If you sign the Pittman Claim Form and Release you also agree to waive other outstanding claims that arose in conjunction with it. This may include MSPB and other EEO issues like hostile work environment, race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, or retaliation for prior EEO activity. If you were represented by an attorney in these related claims, by signing this waiver you are agreeing to pay for your own attorney.
Employees of the Postal Service are exempt from 5 U.S. Code 7121(d) and are allowed to file both grievances and EEO complaints. The Pittman EEO settlement interferes with that. It expects the employee to notify the union of their grievance waiver. We know how well that works. Edmond Walker, the original Class Agent, failed to disclose a 2010 legal matter to his own attorneys. The EEO settlement doesn’t specify who in the union is to be notified of the grievance waiver nor does it require that notice to the union be in writing and by Certified mail. It should be the Postal Service that notifies the appropriate union representative promptly of a grievance waiver.
You may have heard of McConnell v. U.S. Postal Service [http://www.nrpclassaction.com/]. Class members of the McConnell EEO case are unaffected. It covers disabled employees in permanent rehabilitation assignments/limited duty positions who were subjected to the National Reassessment Process from May 5, 2006 through July 1, 2011. Many employees, including Sandra McConnell, are in both groups. If you have any pending EEO, MSPB or grievance claims involving disability discrimination, be sure to consult with your attorney and union representative before signing the Pittman Claim Form and Release. The deadline for filing is June 19, 2014.
Pittman EEO case documents, but not the Claim Form and Release, are posted online at http://www.pittmanclass.com/, http://www.keepingposted.org/ and http://liteblue.usps.gov/. Since they failed to include the Claim Form and Release, I have attached a copy. Pittman Claim Form and Release
Don Cheney
Auburn WA
Edmond Walker EEO nearly derailed, McConnell Class Action stalled and more postal legal cases
Sam thing went on with me, only at the local level. Denied ever knowing what the NRP was..
I got out after that.
By the way, lets not forget that the union signed off on this assessment business on a national level before it was implemented. It could not have passed without the union’s OK.
My union lied under oath that I had ever approached them on a grievance regarding this issue. Now, the president (who lied under oath) is working for in management.
Isn’t that special!!!
Thanks, Susan!
Luis,
Read my 2 post on what to do, and follow it to the exact language.
That is if you value you’re job and want a job when you return to work.
Good Luck bro… S.M.
So, what do we do if we have signed and submitted these papers? How do we back out of this mess we were so cleverly, and deceitfully lured into signing?
Hello everyone,
I am still shocked and surprised about this new information on the written wording that if an employee’s signs off on the Pittman class action final settlement packet that we have recd. in the mail, then we could eventually lose our right to still be an employee, and down the road too, if and when we would be able to return to work. I talked about this late last night, but my concerns are, why would any settlement have typed language instructing us claim members to sign off on final terms that instruct us to go ahead and sign this even if we don’t understand the settlement ? I would think that statement being included on what we have or have not signed is a “conflict of interest and biased in favor of the USPS”. This wording worries me extremely and I certainly made a huge mistake in signing this form. But I think if anyone is worried about being let go later down the road, or sooner, that statement in itself would be I think another lawsuit in the making. I am not a lawyer, but when a document recommends defendants to sign off on an official legal doc, and by their own words stating, “if you do no understand what you are signing (my words), you should go ahead and sign it anyway”, this to me, creates a down the road future lawsuit. This wording alone shows that many were baited into signing this form/packet, and given false pretense that we, by signing this packet, were NOT giving up any right to stay on the USPS employee register (list of who is an employee) and believing we will have a job when we have improved enough/recovered to go back to work, limited job or otherwise). Another of my concern, or I should say thought is, by any of us signing this form, by that statement alone of recommending us to sign it may prove to be of importance to ACTUALLY helping out the injured employee’s who may in the future be let go or fired. I am not a lawyer, as I state, but any doc that has language implying to sign said doc if you don’t understand that doc tells and shows me, that given to a judge/jury/prosecutor/lawyer, that none of us knew what we were signing, didn’t understand what we were signing, and thus,CANNOT be held responsible for what we signed, because right there upfront was wording saying this doc may be written in a fashion where most men cannot comprehend it. The lawyers who wrote this may have just let the Trojan Horse out and in full view of us so badly screwed over employee’s of the USPS.
This morning, I sent copies (all hand written and notarized-each letter)
to the; Pittman vs. Donahue
settlement services,inc.,
P.O.BOX 869
Tallahassee, FL,
32302-0869
I sent my letter, notarized (cannot stress to have everyone notarize each letter)
and sent this ‘REGISTERED USPS”, besides sending a letter (notarized as well) to the same address this morning. I also am sending another Registered letter and a regular
letter to this address. All told, 2 letters and 2 Registered priority to this place. I may be going overboard, but in the end, I will have copies of what was in each priority envelope, as well as copies of what was in my reg. envelopes, plus I will have 2 tracking numbers of what I have done. This will prove my futile attempts that my wishes were to ‘cancel and nullify my participation and my previous signed release forms, and that of 5/25/2014 my name should be removed from any involvement in this case”.
My paperwork is already in my local bank safe deposit box. I did this first thing this morning. It is that important. This may never come to be, getting again walked out the door, or being let go for being injured/ and-or, for signing this form from this bs lawsuit. HELL, the fix was in a long time ago, and this goes to show us law-abiding employee’s will always get crewed over from the courts. Man, we did get screwed over badly. If you kind of go over the pay-out, as I read these details, it will take years to get any monies, but more important, the way they set up the instructions as to who gets what, most people will only see under a hundred dollars. You would have to meticulously kept track of all your OT hours and your dates on when you were on limited duty, the latter being more easy to account for. So, is signing this final legal form worth a couple of bucks, in regards to the possibility of losing your job at any time ?
Well for me, I do not want this money, which is an insult to my integrity that I live by, and I will not accept this, now knowing and understanding a bit more of the final and very shady details. The USPS and both sides of the lawyers, have screwed this common man, all for MONEY.
I cannot force anyone to do anything, but protect yourself.
I read as much as I could when I went to www/pittmanclass.com,
and I didn’t see anything about that I may be fired or lose my job by signing this, but as I have stated, I am not a lawyer.
Sincerely,
Ms. Susan Haymer……injured usps employee…
If it says you will be paid “up” to $$ good luck or and “collusion” my to local class attorneys told me the USPS attempted to buy them off in case for $500 K they said they would not even think about it. But two months later they settled without me and added three more class agents that agreed with them and got 1.6 million. The price was right!! And now one of them is an EEOC trail Attorney go figure!!!
What a joke the EEOC OPM OFO all in it together not to stop discrimination but hide it and let let them keep doing it.
When there is no accountability or conscience involved, b etter watch your back !
And these lawyers are working for US on OUR BEHALF??? We might as well have the postal attorneys working for us… I am not signing this form, this is a disgrace… This form does not say how much you will receive which is roughly pennies between $300-$600… I’m sure a lot of employees received more that that even if they only got SL/AL…. I don’t like how this reads, and I am in the McConnell class and will wait and see what happens with that… Even though it says this does not effect the McConnell case, the timelines fall within the same time period and feel PO will try to say most of these fall within the Pittman case… Red Flags are all over this consent form… I bet Postal Management is laughing about the little money they are paying out… DISGRACE!!!!
Check your PS 50 and you will see the disability code so even if a settlement is reached they still know what type of disability you have when you apply for another job before they make their selection with in the USPS. If you every took a USPS entrance exam and coded your disability on the test answer sheet they have a computerized record of you disability they keep for 30 years.
Do not sign go to court and demand a Jury trial. They will sweep the 30 year history of discrimination against all applicants and employees who have completed a disability code listing and it will never stop!
I also noticed that on this form there was wording in the print that you should sign this, even if you do not agree with the wording, which I found very strange. Do not know about you guys, but I hope to get back to work eventually, so I have already typed up a letter cancelling my participation in this case and on Tuesday, I will send this letter cancelling my approval and participation in this settled lawsuit and reclaiming my rights to still be on the Postal Service’s employee register/list. No amount of money, and especially this small and pathetic amount the courts and lawyers deemed fit to give us injured employees, the addition of now not having a job, if we signed this. As I stated, I will send a letter, and a registered letter cancelling my involvement in this scam of a lawsuit. I am betting nobody or very few people understood what they were signing, and particularly the printed language telling us to sign off on this. I am wondering is any collusion is present.
People, send a registered letter to the lawsuit address found on this form/papers we all signed, and draft letter that you are cancelling your involvement and participation in this settlement. Make it very clearly you do not accept the terms and will not accept any monies from this lawsuit settlement. Make that very clear. If you do get a check, DO NOT CASH IT. Then if you get better to the point of returning to work, you will have a job. Might have to get a lawyer, but in the end, you will not have to worry about all of this bullshot hidden legal language that I most certainly did not understand.
One more thing, you may want to put in the letter that you should send to the lawsuit administrator, that you are also cancelling participation because you did not understand what you signed and sent in. Then you are covering yourself. Then you must keep all TRACKING numbers and all copies FOREVER. (put these papers in a safe deposit box).
Also, I am sending 2 Registered letters, just in case they claim they didn’t get the first one. Will send them a week apart and and I will not cash this check if one is sent to me. I will keep all copies that I cancelled my active participation in this lawsuit and that I did more than a person is expected to do, to cancel the correct and legal way. Sending just one cancellation letter in my opinion is not enough. Lawyers, administrators and our court system cannot be trusted. If $600 is your idea of happiness and you think you may have your job in the future, then by all means go ahead and cash this joke of a settlement. I will not. Not worth my job…Good luck and God Bless….
(why would a settlement have wording that recommends us to sign this settlementlegal form ?)