Employee Unable to Bear Children as a Result of Postal Service’s Unlawful Conduct, Judge Rules
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Hosea Legal PLLC announced today that it received a decision from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finding that the United States Postal Service failed to accommodate a disabled employee, retaliated against her, and subjected her to a hostile work environment in violation of federal law.
The USPS employee returned from her honeymoon in November 2011 to work as a letter carrier in the D.C. Metro Area. The young woman, who had a serious back condition, asked the Postal Service to follow her medical restrictions so that she could perform her job safely. The Postal Service ignored her requests for accommodation and repeatedly threatened to send her home without pay. As a result, the employee worked in pain for months and suffered substantial injury to her back.
Administrative Judge Julie Procopiow Todd presided over the employee’s four-day EEOC hearing last January. In her decision, Judge Todd emphasized the severity of harm, stating that the Postal Service’s unlawful conduct “ultimately rendered Complainant incapable of carrying a pregnancy – this is a devastating prognosis for someone, like Complainant, who had hoped to have a child of her own with her husband.”
The administrative judge ordered the Postal Service to pay $250,000.00 in non-pecuniary compensatory damages, pay $958.00 in pecuniary compensatory damages, provide in-person EEO training to managers, and take other corrective action. Stephanie Hosea, founding attorney of Hosea Legal, represented the employee. The administrative judge ordered the Postal Service to pay the employee’s full attorney’s fees, noting in her decision that Ms. Hosea “provided exceptional representation to Complainant.”
“This decision sends a very strong message to the Postal Service that it must respond appropriately to disabled workers’ pleas for help,” said Ms. Hosea. “Otherwise, vulnerable employees get hurt, sometimes severely and irreparably like in this case.”
Hosea Legal PLLC is a Washington, D.C. law firm that represents federal employees nationwide before the EEOC, MSPB, and other federal administrative bodies. More information about Hosea Legal can be found at www.law4work.com. Information about the EEOC, including its federal sector EEO complaint process, can be found at www.eeoc.gov.
source: Hosea Legal PLLC
EEOC Awards Disabled Vet Postal Employee $120,000
I am dealing with disabling arthritis in my lower back, hip, shoulder and neck. I have been in the same office as a clerk for 12 years and pretty much know how to do every position in the building. When the arthritis shots stopped working and a near mental breakdown caused by the pain I was in daily and the stress from being around the idiot postmaster forced me to take off and subsequently file for medical retirement, the idiot in charge then started harassing me more so than she did when I was working. She’s threatened me with discipline for not coming in, ignored my certified request for reasonable accommodation–a big no no, from what I’ve read, in postal regulations, and won’t let me come back to work. Now she’s after me again, trying to discipline me for not coming to work. Uh…you won’t LET me!! Idiot. Doesn’t matter that my medical retirement case is now in pending status–she wants to get her final digs in before the retirement is finalized. Considering filing EEO against her.
you see those best place to work articles…..US Postal Circus is the worst place to work of all large size companies in USA. out today,no one will ever confuse this dump with American Airlines who give their workers free air travel. Lowes is giving out working employee bonus……at Postal Circus PO Mismanaging Bureaucrats give themselves bonus money off of the backs of the workers…….all while losing Billions of Dollars last 11 years. their claim to fame this year was they lost only 3.7 Billion instead of the 5.2 Billion the year before. lol what a bunch of low IQ fools.
postal management at it’s finest once again, gee I wonder why people go POSTAL!!!
Good to hear the employee won her fight, but lost the ultimate battle. Her health. Supervisors need extensive training with injured and / or handicapped employees. They are treated like dirt when their very physical jobs create health problems, or they are hurt outside of employment. Although many could perform a wide variety of duties, supervisors insist they are useless, compounding an already difficult situation to be made worse by the abuse and threats of losing their job. Its bizarre to me how the lack of empathy and lack of ability to co-ordinate other duties for efficiency of service and production eludes these ignoramus supervisors. Their pursuit of their “bonus money” is at the expense of the employees well being. Those employees who collude with mangers to harm the injured employee with unwillingness to work with them and harassment are equally as guilty and just as stupid. Also, to the local unions, get a freaking clue to educate yourselves enough about this process to protect those who are injured and need your assistance for protection against harassments, enough of the multitude of grievances to be settled on deaf ears and dumbness. lead by example or get the hell out of the way. If their doctors with their trained experience confirms they have a restriction, it far supersedes the opinions of the dumbest.
someone told me that i will never become a supervisor and much less a manager because i use my thinking skills. I guess, if you are full of nonsense and can bully employees, you can become a supervisor or a manager. I have had too many items to bring to EEO myself. It’s not hard to believe that the USPS is a miniature of Washington DC. You can work without using your mind and will and don’t accomplish anything great for the country. Just go with the flow and stay in power as long as you are elected. The union is a mediocre entity as well. This young woman should remain employee as long as she can fulfill her job or other suitable job at USPS and the supervisor and manager responsible for this should both be fired. I hope the swamp at USPS be drained too.
I agree. Nothing will change. The USPS keeps hiring more incompetent managers. Nothing comes out of their pockets for the horrible mistakes they make. Seriously, no accountability. I took it for 20 years and got the hell out. All I can do to this day is just shake my head in disbelief. How many managers does it take to change a light bulb?
pfffft. Big deal. This won’t stop the usps from anything. They waste billions annually on this type of thing.
But since there is NO accountability in postal mgmt., nothing ever changes.
I am old now but it always surprises me how people can be so mean to others .
Great news. But this won’t stop the postal service from continuing their disgusting behavior.No amount of money can compensate for a lost child.As a 37 year retiree ,i can write a book on the abuse the management gives it’s employees .As a 19 year old sub clerk, when i broke my wrist ,management had me lifting bags with one arm. Glad that they were taken all the way to court where they always lose.
Does anyone ever live to get their award if they win millions in court? USPS will appeal, appeal, appeal.
she should have sued them in court, would have won millions and would never have to work again.
Unfortunately, there is a $300,000 cap on pain and suffering damages in federal court, too. The same law applies whether you go to court or the EEOC. She could not have won any more money in court.
once again no mention of NALC Letter Carrier Union helping…..because they are company unions helping to run interference for the po bureaucratic mismanaging criminals. kind of like the crackers on the cotton plantation. $24 dollars a pay period for these scummers….not from me. President Trump sell the place to UPS/FDX/AMZN…….most likely no takers.