{"id":11281,"date":"2015-06-16T14:11:11","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T19:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=11281"},"modified":"2015-06-16T14:11:11","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T19:11:11","slug":"postal-unions-object-to-administration-proposal-to-reduce-compensation-to-injured-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2015\/06\/16\/postal-unions-object-to-administration-proposal-to-reduce-compensation-to-injured-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Postal Unions Object to Administration Proposal to Reduce Compensation to Injured Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"news-date-inline\"><span class=\"date-display-single\">From APWU &#8211; 06\/16\/2015<\/span> &#8211; <\/span>In a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apwu.org\/sites\/apwu\/files\/resource-files\/DOL%20FECA%20061515.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">June 15 letter,<\/a>\u00a0the presidents of the four postal unions asked the Department of Labor (DOL) and the White House to withdraw a proposal that would reduce compensation benefits to injured workers and urged the administration instead to work with federal employee unions and their allies in Congress to \u201cfashion sensible reform\u201d of the Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA).<\/p>\n<p>Referring to a May 20 hearing before a House Subcommittee, the union presidents wrote to Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, \u201cIt became clear during the hearing that your department\u2019s proposals to reduce workers\u2019 compensation benefits for injured workers with dependents, and reduce benefits again at retirement age, are not based on solid evidence that benefits are excessive. Rather they seem to be based on comparisons to state workers\u2019 compensation programs that have been systematically gutted over the past two decades.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Testifying at the hearing were: Director of the DOL\u2019s Office of Workers Compensation Programs Leonard Howie III, an official of the General Accountability Office (GAO), and National Association of Letter Carriers\u2019 Director of Retired Members Ron Watson, an expert on FECA. APWU Human Relations Director Sue Carney also submitted testimony.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe GAO witness at the hearing confirmed that its own studies show that the proposed cut in FECA benefits at retirement age would result in 22-35% less income for an injured worker than a typical FERS retiree,\u201d the union presidents wrote. \u201cFrankly, the DOL\u2019s weak defense of its proposals at the hearing was embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The union presidents urged the DOL to withdraw support for the FECA changes outlined in the president\u2019s 2016 budget. \u201cThey were developed during the Bush administration and have been repeatedly shown to be misguided,\u201d they wrote. \u201cPlease work with the unions and with allies in the Congress to fashion FECA reform that is both evidence-based and fair to injured workers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"last\">The letter was signed by National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando, National Postal Mail Handlers Union President Paul Hogrogian, National Rural Letter Carriers Association Jeanette Dwyer and APWU President Mark Dimondstein.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last\"><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/1-APWU-New.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10087\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/1-APWU-New.jpg\" alt=\"1-APWU-New\" width=\"478\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/1-APWU-New.jpg 478w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/1-APWU-New-300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 478px) 100vw, 478px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From APWU &#8211; 06\/16\/2015 &#8211; In a June 15 letter,\u00a0the presidents of the four postal unions asked the Department of Labor (DOL) and the White House to withdraw a proposal that would reduce compensation benefits to injured workers and urged the administration instead to work with federal employee unions and their allies in Congress to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-apwu-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11282,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281\/revisions\/11282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}