USPS says NRP ended in January - postalnews blog
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USPS says NRP ended in January

In a letter dates July 1, 2011, USPS Employee Resource Management Vice President Deborah Giannoni-Jackson advised the Area Vice Presidents that the National Reassessment Program (NRP) ended on January 31 of this year.

NRP was an effort to reduce the number of limited duty employees in the USPS by either getting such employees back to full duty, or failing that, to resign or retire.

The USPS faces a class action suit by many of those employees, and has also had to defend the process in actions before the Merit Systems Protection Board. The lawsuit was cited in the Postal Service’s most recent Quarterly Financial Report as a material risk factor:

On January 14, 2010, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Office of Federal Operations certified a class action case against the Postal Service in a matter captioned McConnell v. Potter (first instituted in 2006), with the class consisting of all permanent rehabilitation employees and limited duty employees who have been subjected to the National Reassessment Process (NRP) from May 5, 2006 to the present.

The Postal Service used the NRP to ensure that its records were correct and that employees receiving workers’ compensation benefits were placed in jobs consistent with their abilities. The case alleges violations of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 resulting from the NRP’s failure to provide a reasonable accommodation, the NRP’s wrongful disclosure of medical information, the creation by the NRP of a hostile work environment, and the NRP’s adverse impact on disabled employees. The class is seeking injunctive relief and damages of an uncertain amount on behalf of a yet undetermined, but very large number of employees. If the plaintiffs were able to prove their allegations in this matter and to establish the damages they assert, then an adverse ruling could have a material impact on the Postal Service. However, the Postal Service disputes the claims and intends to vigorously contest the matter.

While the financial statement refers to NRP in the past tense, it’s interesting to note that the USPS’s Comprehensive Statement on Postal Operations, filed just a month before NRP supposedly ended, implies that the program is ongoing:

The National Reassessment Process is a key initiative for reviewing the status of employees in rehabilitation and limited-duty assignments at the end of each year.

USPS NRP Letter

This entry was posted on Monday, August 8th, 2011 at 8:31 am and is filed under NRP, postal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  • CAworker

    Would have been cheaper to offer viable early out offers than harass, humiliate in front of the rest of the postal service
    and damage these foks retirements, including damaging their social security high 3 years. Hope it costs a bundle so they learn their lesson finally and treat folks right.

  • brew

    I can’t wait to get my money when we win this lawsuit

  • brew

    Postal management never thinks or cares about the price they have to pay in the future, for all the lies and stealing and miss management, as long as they get what they want now.
    Postal Management is hated by arbitrators, lawyers, Judges, jury’s, Doctors, and everyone else that has to deal with the ineptitude of these unqualified morons
    Now they will pay again!
    The best part is that these mental midgets never learn.
    I love it!!!

  • NRP’D and Bruised

    Greetings all on this very helpful site..

    To all interested. I got in touch with a representative of the lawyers that are involved in the NRP class action to verify if I have a claim number.

    According to them.. there are 120,000 class members!

    Now I asked how in the world they if they would win this class action, be able to gain equitable compensation for this many class members?

    I was told that IF they were to win this class action.. they dont even know if there can even be compensation.. that is down the road!

    Now the USPS is using the NRP class action against others filing EEOC against them. They are having their cases chopped or dismissed due to the NRP class action.

    I feel this is just another tool by the USPS to get around the direct discriminatory actions they used against their employees.

    We were not given the option to opt out of this class action.. we were merely told we were in it.

    If in fact it is true that there are that many– we have a slim to none chance of even gaining any equitable compensation for the damages they caused us.

    I need feedback .. If the USPS is using the NRP class action as a tool to buffer themselves in other EEOC cases knowing that the Class action itself is going to be to their benefit I would say that again we are being wronged.

    If any can find out more information .. please post … and thank you.

  • Sandra McConnell

    Keep the faith everone. The selfish greed of the PO is catching up to them in more ways than one. They’ve been abusing craft employees while enjoying many luxuries. They have forgotten that we are a SERVICE for the American people, not a corporatized cash cow for their own benefit. Most of the injured workers, {over 100,000} have been left with life changing disabilities, and then forced to become the problem of OWCP or OPM. Many have been left without paychecks for months, pending approval or just plain delayed by the PO. Grievances and lawsuits have been costing them millions, yet management still violates the contracts on a daily basis. It’s up to the craft employees to write our congressional reps until they get the message.

  • brew

    i was one who was walked out last year, two years before I was ready
    I took disability retirement, but how about my losses from being able to contribute to my thrift for the last year.
    As all law suits this large, The lawyer’s get rich while we pay the price.

  • m.macelis

    The Postal Service and those that they employ to harangue and harass individuals will at some point see their KARMA. I am a disabled employee that continued to work despite three joint replacements and a rebuilt right shoulder. Despite each surgery when my physical therapy was complete I returned to work the following scheduled day. I never lingered on OWCP rolls, but I was pushed out and told their was no position for me after my shoulder was rebuilt in December of 2008. I was made to take their reassessment tests for a job outside the Postal Service and finally retired under duress and with a paltry pension. They then deemed me as uncooperative and tried to cut my comp benefits for medical. That decision was reversed and the benefits reinstated. I don’t care how much money is involved as much as I’d like the people responsible to share some of the angst and pain they’ve caused the rest of us and thank you Sandra for having the strength and perseverence to pursue this as I am weary and doubt I would have been up to the task. The Postal Service could probably be a good organization if there were people with management skills at the top. It may be too late for that now, but hopefully they’ll always have the museum at the Smithsonian.

  • Dinvalds

    I have been through heck for 14 yrs at the USPS. I have been mentally and physically beaten by Postal Management. I put my HEART into my various positions and now I am disabled, spat at and thrown out. I am loosing my home, my car, etc. What is going to happen to my handicapped daughter when I am gone! I concur with what everyone else has written…. I feel like my life is done. Sorry for venting……

  • ifitmakessensetheywontdoit

    My sisters and brothers: I FEEL your pain. As I posted previously on the other recent NRP article…I’d like to know WHY, if NRP was ‘ended in January, 2011′, I was put out on April 30th, 2011, “under the NRP, due to no work available”??? I was working the FULL core duties of my BID job [unfortunately, while I am rotting at home, my bid job was 'abolished']…
    This SAME supervisor who put me out, was one of the supervisors who signed off on my ‘Modified Bid assignment through the NRP” [yes, this is the SECOND year in a row for lucky me!], last year, in February, 2010, after being put out for one week! Approximately six months later, after grieving it right away, I WAS ‘made whole’ with back pay!
    Things that make you say, “Hmmmmmm”…
    THIS same supervisor was WELL aware of my current restrictions, same for the last NINE years, but I have always found a bid to work, no problems, but simply, he ADDED the things I could not do/restricted from doing, to a NEW [no notice or reason given] ‘modified job offer’, and when my doctor said I could NOT do those things, well, that’s when he walked me out.
    I have grieved this to high heaven…our union here is one of the strongest, most organized, and finest! Currently, I am awaiting ‘imminent return to work’ per the union and labor relations department…
    Oh yes, I filed an EEO on this guy, and am awaiting that to come to hearing…it is at the equivalent of a step 2 with a special investigator now. Of course, I was told, “the burden of proof remains on you”…NOT that the Post Office will ever admit that one of their supervisors ever does anything or anyone wrongly!!!

    I’d like to know if I have recourse to SUE this supervisor for the undue stress, pain, suffering and financial hardship he has caused myself and my family. My husband, not a Postal Worker, was laid off from his longtime job in January. We have one kid in college and on about to go…mortgage, insurance, etc…the whole shebang…we went through our savings and have been helped by family members at this point…OWCP denied my claim [they are another 'brain trust'...don't get me started], but I hired a lawyer [contingency] who, after reviewing my case, feels I have an excellent case and he will go to bat with them. Union feels my back pay, once I get back to work, will come eventually.

    Still, to be put through this, again, and after NINE + years of harrassment from management…I don’t think ‘outside people’ will ever understand. MISmanagement is hell bent on making ‘bad’ employees out of its good ones.

    I agree with the above post by Sandra, to ‘keep the faith, everyone’…yes, I AM in that Class Action, THANK YOU, Ms. McConnell for filing it!!! I URGE ALL of you, too, to fill out the questionaire on the website [just google: NRP Class Action ] and submit it. It’s like chicken soup: it WILL help and it WON’T hurt!!!

    Good luck to, and God Bless us all through this! May He cause justice to fall on OUR sides!

    @Dinvalds…don’t ever be sorry for venting…’outsiders’ have NO idea who treacherous an employer we work for! I am sorry for your troubles and I pray that you receive FULL compensation and be made whole for them!

  • Ken

    The USPS will continue to harass injured employees. We have Supervisors being paid 100,000 bucks a year and spend 4 hours a day playing on the internet. The work force has been cut in half but not one manager was let go. this is so typical of the USPS to lose money on supervisors. we had 2 misuses of credit cards but the supervisors got promoted.

  • cp

    well if nrp is truly( ? ) abolished, I believe that all dismissed employees should be reinstated. I took was thrown out by the postmaster ,who threatened me. if this doesn’t serve to show how stupid and short sighted the P.O. is I don’t know what will. I needed 4 and 1/3 years till retirement. I keep getting letters from USPS about how I can retire. everyone stay strong and don’t let em get away with it Thanks sandra you rock

  • Marie

    The whole NRP situation continues to amaze me. I have done everything imaginable to bring this injustice to sight.
    I have been interviewed by news reporters, written correspondence with numerous elected government officials (Governors, Senators, Congressmen even President Obama.) Yet nothing seems to help.
    My entire life has been turned upside-down. I am pretty much financially destroyed at this point.
    As hard as it may be, I will continue to “Keep the Faith!”
    If there is anything else I can do to help, please post.
    Good Luck to all!

  • Sheila

    I was forced into a disability retirement in 2008 after 15 years on a modified assisignment for an OJI. I just want to make sure the NRP attorneys have my name. I’ve tried to contact them by phone repeatedly with no success. I have filled out their ‘questionaire’ 3 times just to try to contact them with this question. Any ideas?
    Good luck to all of you. It helps to know I’m still not alone.