Printing - FECA-PT2 - National Association of Letter Carriers

The dates when "disability began" or "compensable disability recurred" are the dates the
employee stopped work, not the dates pay stopped. An increase of pay during the
continuation of pay (COP) period does not change the pay rate for compensation purposes.
(2) The CE must first decide which date to use in establishing the pay rate. To do this
the CE should determine whether:
(a) The employee was absent from work due to injury-related disability on or
immediately after the date of injury; and
(b) The disability began at that time or is continuous from that time. If so, there
is no choice and the date of injury will be used.
(3) If the employee did not stop work on the date of injury (or immediately afterwards,
defined as the next day), and the disability began at a later date, the file should show the
pay rate for the date of injury and the date when disability began. The greater of the two
will be used in computing compensation. If they are the same, the pay rate should be
effective on the date disability began.
(4) Recurrences of disability are defined in FECA PM 2-1500.3b. A recurrent pay rate
applies only if the work stoppage began more than six months after return to regular
full-time employment with the U.S.
(a) The ECAB has defined “regular” employment as “established and not
fictitious, odd-lot or sheltered,” contrasting it with a job created especially for a
claimant. The ECAB has also noted that the duties of “regular” employment are
covered by a specific job classification, pointing out that the legislative history of the
1960 amendments to the FECA, which added the alternative provisions to section
8101(4), demonstrates that “Congress was concerned with the cases in which the
injured employee had ‘recovered’ or had ‘apparently recovered’ from the injury.”
The test is not whether the tasks that appellant performed during his limited duty
would have been done by someone else, but instead whether he occupied a regular
position that would have been performed by another employee. See also Eltore D.
Chinchillo, 18 ECAB 647 (1967) [Remanding the case for further development, the
ECAB noted that if the employee only returned to work in a temporary position
designed to keep him on the payroll until his future ability to perform shipfitter
duties was ascertained, the employee did not resume “regular” full-time employment
within the meaning of the statute.]
(b) For employees who worked regular part-time schedules when injured, the
term "full-time" should be construed as "full-schedule."
(c) Entitlement to a recurrent pay rate based on return to private employment is
discussed in FECA Program Memoranda Nos. 164 and 268.
(5) If the recurrence is established, the CE should compare the pay rates on the date of
injury, the date disability began (if delayed), and the date compensable disability recurred.
FECA-PT2 Printed: 06/08/2010 468