My name is LeShawn Brown and I am a Carrier from Village Station Post Office located in Manhattan. I have been with the United States Postal Service and a proud member of the NALC Branch 36 since 2013. I am a hard-working Shop Steward as well as a dedicated Hearing Officer for multiple stations within the New York City area. I am honored to accept the appointment from President Charlie Heege as the Director of Compensation for Branch 36. I will work hard to assist in any way that I can to guide you through completing your compensation paperwork in its entirety. My goal is for you to have one less worry while working on healing and regaining your physical strength. Helping you to help yourself is a win for us all. look forward to working with you and being a resource, you can count on.

Beyond Continuation of Pay (COP)

Happy Spring, Brothers and Sisters. We have survived winter and all the inclement weather that was dumped upon us. Hopefully, Spring will be gentle and provide us with some pleasant weather to make delivering during the day comfortable.
Let’s talk about what happens after Continuation of Pay ends. If you are not completely healed from your on-the-job injury, you have two options. If it is your doctor’s opinion that you can return to work with limitations, then he must complete a CA-17 (Duty Status Report) and state clearly whatever restrictions and limitations he wants you to abide by to aid in your healing process. Once you upload this form into your ECOMP profile, your postal service HR Specialist will contact the manager of your station. The HR Specialist will have him/her create an appropriate modified job assignment to offer you so that you may return to work. Once you review it and it meets your doctors’ recommendations, you sign it and begin the process of re-entering the workplace in a working status. Depending on the work-hour limitations your doc¬tor suggested, you will also need to complete a CA-7 (Claim for Compensation) on a bi-weekly basis, as well as a CA-7A (Time Analysis Form). You will basically be documenting how many hours that you have worked during a specific time period and how many hours you were charged with OWCP Leave Without Pay (LWOP). The totals on any given day should not exceed eight hours. These forms are completed through ECOMP. Once you input your supervisor’s email, they have five working days from the time they receive it to submit it to OWCP to be processed.
If your doctor does not recommend that you return to work due to being temporarily totally incapacitated, he must complete a CA-17 (Duty Status Report), indicating the restrictions to match that decision. You will then have the option to complete a CA-7 (Claim for Compensation) to claim the hours for your full work day in increments of 14 days, which must match the postal pay periods. As I mentioned earlier in this article, the hours for a work day should not exceed eight on any given day. You will follow the same process and input your supervisor’s email so he/she can complete their portion and submit it to OWCP to be processed. Remember the key to receiving compensation when you are out of work, due to an on-the-job injury, is to continuously upload updated medical documentation concerning your injury.
You can track the progress through ECOMP by accessing your current claim and selecting Case History located at the lower left of the screen. You will see several headings with a plus sign inside a circle. Select CA-7 Tracking and a drop down will appear titled “Compensation Payment Tracking”. This will let you know the status of the CA-7 form you submitted.
As always, I am here to assist you whenever I am needed. Work safe and enjoy this beautiful weather, which is trying hard to make an appearance.