Letter of Demand
Occasionally, Management may overpay Letter Carriers. When this happens, the Postal Service will seek to recover the overpayment by filing an ‘Employer Claim”. The overpayment to a Letter Carrier can occur for a variety of reasons. Some of the more common reasons include, but not limited to failing to withhold the correct insurance premiums, placing an employee in the wrong step after a change in grade or requesting for reimbursement from a carrier for Continuation of Pay (COP) for a claim requested by the carrier due to a traumatic injury, which was denied by the Department of Labor (DOL). Article 28 of the National Agreement (NA) and the Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM) Section 437 protects Letter Carriers who find themselves in this situation.
Recently I have come across a few instances where Management is attempting to sidestep the contract and have their Financial Specialists contacting the carriers. The Specialists usually contact the carriers by phone and inform the carrier that he or she owes the alleged amount; however, without providing any documentation to support the claim. This conversation with the carrier and the specialist would not meet the criteria of Article 28 of the NA.
Article 28 requires that Management in advance of any money demand upon an employee for any reason, the employee must be informed in writing and the Demand must include the reasons, therefore. Management will likely look to meet the requirement by issuing the Letter Carrier a “Letter of Demand”. It is highly recommended that if you receive a LOD that you should contact your Shop Steward immediately to file a grievance. Article 28.4.A. prohibits the Postal Service from collecting a debt, regardless of the amount or type of debt, until all grievances concerning the debt have been resolved so it is imperative to file a grievance to stop Management from collecting the monies due.
A Letter of Demand is what Management will present to a Letter Carrier who the Postal Service believes was overpaid in order to substantiate the employer claim. In addition, it must be noted that usually prior to a carrier receiving a LOD from Management a carrier may receive a Statement Invoice from the USPS Disbursing office Accounting Service Center in Egan Minnesota. It is recommended that if any carrier receives such an invoice statement that they do not write a check for the alleged amount owed by the carrier because it does not meet the criteria in Article 28 to substantiate what the debt or overpayment is for.
When a Letter Carrier receives a Letter of Demand it is not the responsibility of the carrier to show they do not owe the money. It is the Postal Service’s responsibility to prove that the carrier owes the amount claimed. If any carrier receives a Letter of Demand, you should require that the Postal Service prove the alleged overpayment. By providing you with a complete accounting of the amount including supporting documentation demonstrating why the letter carrier is indebted and how the sum of the alleged indebtedness was derived at.
If after it is determined by a letter carrier that he or she was overpaid as this sometimes occurs, the carrier has the right to file for a waiver of claim for the overpayment. This provision is derived from the Employee Labor Manual (ELM) Section 437.6 and is also explained in the Joint Contract Administration Manual (JCAM) on pages 28-2 and 28-3 cited below:
Waiver of Employer Claims. Many employer claims involve mistakes in which carriers were overpaid. Section 437 of the ELM gives carriers the right to file for waiver of a claim for overpayment. This section, titled “Waiver of Claims for Erroneous Payment of Pay,” outlines the steps that carriers must follow to request a waiver.
Under this process the carrier files a P. S. Form 3074, Request for Waiver of Claim for Erroneous Payment of Pay. ELM Section 437.32 states: 437.32 PS Form 3074 - The applicant requests a waiver of a claim or a refund of money paid as a result of a claim by submitting PS Form 3074, Request for Waiver of Claim for Erroneous Payment of Pay, in triplicate to the installation head. The completed PS Form 3074 must contain:
a. Information sufficient to identify the claim for which the waiver is sought including the amount of the claim, the period during which the erroneous payment occurred, and the nature of the erroneous payment.
b. A copy of the invoice and/or demand letter sent by the Postal Service, if available, or a statement setting forth the date the erroneous payment was discovered.
c. A statement of the circumstances that the applicant feels would justify a waiver of the claim by the Postal Service.
d. The dates and amount of any payments made by the employee in response to the claim.
The installation head investigates the claim and writes a report of the investigation on the reverse side of the PS Form 3074. The report should include the following data and/or attachments indicated in the ELM Section 437.4. The form is then forwarded to Human Resources for review of the entire files, then sent to Eagan Accounting Service Center (ASC). The ELM Section 437.6 provides that: 437.6 Action by Eagan Accounting Service Center - The Eagan ASC waives the claim if it can determine from a review of the file that all of the following conditions are met:
a. The overpayment occurred through administration error of the Postal Service. Excluded from consideration for waiver of collection are overpayments resulting from errors in time keeping, keypunching, machine processing of timecards or time credit, coding, and any typographical errors that are adjusted routinely in the process of current operations.
b. Everyone having an interest in obtaining a waiver acted reasonably under the circumstances, without any indication of fraud, misrepresentation, fault, or lack of good faith.
c. Collection of the claim would be against equity and good conscience and would not be in the best interest of the Postal Service.
Nothing contained in the Section 437 of the ELM precludes an employee from requesting a waiver where the employer erroneously failed to withhold any employee insurance premiums (Step 4, Q98N-4Q-C00187353, September 20, 2001 M-01446).
Lastly it must be noted that if management denies a waiver request, the letter carrier must see the Shop Steward, as the denial may be made the subject of a separate Grievance.
