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Employing Federal Agency Actions against the Disabled Worker Prior to Separation


Employing Federal Agency Actions against the Disabled Worker Prior to Separation

The question is often asked as to whether there is an adverse or detrimental impact upon a Federal Medical Retirement application if the Federal Gov. Agency or the U.S. Postal Service initiates an adverse action, places an individual on AWOL, PIP, or administers a similar type of administrative sanction, action, etc.  

The general answer is that such agency actions will not prevent or influence the prevention of a FERS Disability Retirement application from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), but such a generalized answer contains within the “details” certain implicit but important assumptions — the primary one being, that the medical support which would accompany such a medical retirement will be strong enough to withstand and effectively refute such an adverse agency action against the Federal employee.   

By “supporting medical documentation” is meant, at a very minimum, two issues which the treating doctor of the employee applicant must address:  That, prior to separation from Federal Service, the Federal or Postal Service employee could no longer perform one or more of the essential or basic elements of one’s job, and further, that the medical condition is expected to last for at least 12 months.  

Additionally, a third element would also be helpful — that the medical condition (a physical injury, mental condition, disabling addiction, etc.) began before the adverse action, or conversely, that the behavior or acts of the Federal or Postal Disability Retirement applicant which precipitated the adverse response of the Federal Agency or the U.S. Postal Service occurred after the origination point of the medical condition, and such an origination point can be ascertained.  

This is because, when trying to defeat a FERS Disability application, OPM will often argue that the real motivation and purpose of the Federal or Postal applicant filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits was based not upon the medical condition itself, but because of the agency adverse action.  Further, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) has stated that such circumstantial evidence of underlying motive or intent can indeed be reviewed.  A successful rebuttal of such implied intent can best be proven by a doctor’s written assertion.  

Motives and motivations are peculiar things, but the casting of such underlying motives are often difficult to prove to be wrong, unless a timeline of facts can presented to counter them. Motives are found only in the depths of one’s consciousness; and like the air we breath, the fact that we assert its existence does not necessarily prove otherwise, especially if the doubter is receptive to the poisonous whispers of finger-pointing.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

See also:

Earnings While Receiving FERS Disability Retirement Benefits
Estimating your annual FERS Medical Retirement compensation







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