Having two hands in and of itself does not guarantee cooperation of effort or a manifestation of symphonic coordination. If the two hands (or more) are contributed by two or more people, without a central cognitive control center, there can be an undermining of efforts precisely because each hand is attempting to engage in an activity independent of the other.
Thus it is with the attempt by an injured or disabled Federal employee or Postal worker to formulate a Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS; and, similarly, the identical concept of cooperative efforts applies to the agencies themselves, if seen as entities with “hands”.
The problem, of course, is that OPM is a separate agency from the Federal or Postal entity through which the Federal or Postal employee submits an application. While the Federal Agency may believe that certain actions definitively settle an issue regarding Federal Disability Retirement, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is neither bound by, nor even required to acknowledge, the validity of any such determination.
Thus, for example, a particular agency may search for a way to “accommodate” a Federal Worker’s medical conditions, and may assert that they cannot provide a reasonable accommodation. OPM may look at that and declare that the mere fact that an agency says so, does not mean that the Federal Worker cannot still engage in “useful or efficient” service.
Contradiction? Inherent confusion? Or misunderstanding of the law?
It is like the man with the bionic arm: until the arm can become in sync with the mind of the operator, it is the same as if one only has one arm. Ultimately, such questions are a “matter of law”, and OPM is almost always wrong with respect to the law. It is up to the applicant, or his/her attorney, to point it out, and to make sure that the two hands become coordinated in arriving at an approval of a Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | Tagged: accepting opm disability clients all across america, accommodation of federal employees, civil service disability, conflicts of opinions in the interpretation of federal disability law, contradictions and misunderstanding of federal disability retirement laws, different points of views during the opm disability retirement application and process, disability retirement at the USPS, eligibility determinations from employing agencies and the scrutiny test from the opm, federal disability attorney, federal disability law blog, federal disability retirement and the analogy of the two hands, independence of federal agencies in matter of disability, law firm representing clients in opm disability law all across america, lawyer federal retirement disability, nationwide representation of federal employees, not much real coordination amog federal oganizations, opm's independence from other government agencies, opm's independence from the workers' employing agency may come in conflict when defining disability, opm's interpretation of federal disability laws, postal service disability retirement, reasonable accommodation of federal workers, the mixed blessing of having two independent agencies working on your federal disability retirement application, the most complete blog on federal disability retirement, understanding how agencies' independence may affect the way an opm disability retirement application is evaluated, what lack of coordination between the opm and the employing agency could mean for the fers disability applicant, when two different agencies' interpretations of federal disability law can come into conflict |
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