Last Updated on September 29, 2010
There is nothing inherently wrong with an Agency, or the U.S. Postal Service, from providing light duty, limited duty, or “special assignments” to an injured individual, or a Federal or Postal employee who suffers from a medical condition which prevents or otherwise impedes him or her from performing all of the essential elements of one’s job. The difficult conceptual framework that many Federal and Postal employees are unable to grasp, is that while the Federal Agency can certainly allow for such light duty assignments, such light duty assignments do not preclude one from continuing to remain eligible for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.
The reason for the continuing eligibility is that there is a legal distinction between “accommodation” under the law, and “light duty” work. An accommodation, in order to be a technically legal application of the term, must be some act or provision which the Agency makes, such that the individual is capable of performing all of the essential elements of one’s job. Thus, being allowed to take a greater amount of sick leave, or take LWOP, or be allowed to perform duties which are peripheral to one’s position description — while all well and good — do not allow the Federal or Postal employee to continue to perform the essential elements of the official position description. As such, light duty allowances do not constitute an accommodation under the law, and while it continues to allow the Federal or Postal employee to remain employed, it also does not preclude him or her from being eligible for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
If you accept a lower graded light duty job in a totally different pay system (new SF-50 was issued changing the carreer code of the employee) but with “save pay” within the same agency. Would this employee be considered legally accomodated? Due to nature of medical condition and previous job, CFR (and doctors) prohibits return to previous job.