A few years ago I had banked up over 1000 hours of sick leave, until some medical misfortune led to a dramatic decline in what I had available for future calamities. Just before returning to work from knee surgery, I developed a blood clot that required another month of leave while on blood thinners. An ailing parent in another state came soon after and four more weeks of leave disappeared. Next came several series of eye surgeries and visits to eye specialists requiring overnight stays, and I began to get a bit nervous. I still have a pretty good chunk of leave left, but I can see where someone with less years of service could easily have none in a very short period of time. Almost all of my leave was covered under the Family Medical Leave Act, and I have never been disciplined for abusing sick leave.
Probably the simplest description of what advance sick leave is comes from the JCIM (Joint Contract Interpretation Manual). The 2022 versions states under Article 10: Up to thirty days (240 hours) of sick leave may be advanced to an employee with a serious disability or ailment if there is reason to believe the employee will return to duty (ELM, Section 513.511). The Postal Service installation head has authority to approve such requests. An employee is not required to use all annual leave before receiving advance sick leave. You can NOT request advance sick leave to care for a family member. It is only available for the employee's own disability or illness. Let's say you have little to no sick leave left accrued, after you ran into medical misfortune similar to what I had. During elk season this year, you stumbled and twisted your knee while packing out a trophy bull elk. At first you think nothing of it; you ice it down, and take a few tylenol, and after a day or two you're back to work. But alas, misfortune has struck again, as you notice that the pain hasn't subsided, and after a visit to an orthopedic doctor, you have surgery scheduled for next month. Your doctor completes the necessary FMLA documentation for you to be off from work for four weeks to recover, and states that you can return to full duty after the four weeks off. You have 40 hours of sick leave left which will get you paid for one of those weeks, but not for the three weeks afterwards. I recommend that employees do these five (5) things: 1. Go to your physician and have them either fill out FMLA qualification forms for your illness/ailment, or provide a detailed letter/documentation that includes that the employee has a serious disability or ailment, what dates the employee will be needed off work and what date the employee will be returning to work. 2. Ask for a PS Form 1221 from your supervisor, Shop Steward, or download one from the internet. Fill out the portion of the form titled: Employee's Name, Social Security No. (or EIN #), Advanced Sick Leave Begins Date, Advanced Sick Leave Ends Date. 3. Ask for a PS Form 3971 from your supervisor, Shop Steward, or download one from the internet. If you will be requesting part of the leave period on your available leave balance, and part on advanced sick leave, you can fill out two separate 3971s for the sick leave portion and another for the advanced. Otherwise specify in the remarks section of the 3971 how many of the hours you are requesting to be advanced sick leave. 4. Ask your immediate supervisor who the installation head's name is so that you can request in writing for advanced sick leave. If not provided, ask to meet with a Shop Steward to get the name, or address your request to "Installation Head". Write a letter to the Installation Head requesting the Advance Sick Leave and include that the leave is for a "serious disability" or "serious ailment" as described in your physician's provided documentation, how many advanced sick leave hours you desire, what dates you will be needed off work and when you will be returning to work. 5. Make a copy of all four (4) items listed above, staple them together, and hand them to either the installation head or to your immediate supervisor. If your supervisor is untrustworthy, you can request to meet with a Shop Steward so that the Shop Steward can assist you in submitting the packet. If your request is denied or your paycheck later does not have the advanced sick leave (and your request was NOT denied), you will need to meet with a Shop Steward within 14 days of the denied request. Comments are closed.
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April 2024
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