P.S. Docket No. AO 21-143

P.S. Docket No. AO 21-143

ZACHARY ROJEWSKI v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE

APPEARANCE FOR PETITIONER:
Zachary Rojewski

APPEARANCE FOR RESPONDENT:
Francis John Holly
Labor Relations Specialist

INITIAL DECISION

The Postal Service seeks to collect a debt from Zachary Rojewski by administrative wage garnishment through the Department of the Treasury. The Postal Service claims that Mr. Rojewski had a negative 52-hour annual leave balance, valued at $685.95, when he resigned from the Postal Service in 2019. He later received another invoice for $167.75 for the taxes paid on the disputed amount. Mr. Rojewski disputes both the amount and the existence of the debt. He argues that the Postal Service forged annual leave forms and did not properly enter his time when his timecard was not working.
For the reasons discussed below, the petition is denied.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Mr. Rojewski was a laborer-custodian with the Postal Service from July 2015 through September 2019 (Resp. Exh. 9; Tr. 78, 88, 91).
2. Like most Postal Service employees, Mr. Rojewski could use his annual leave before it was earned. He could, however, earn enough annual leave over the remaining part of the year to make up for the negative balance (Tr. 68). When he was a new employee, he earned four hours of annual leave for every 80 hours worked (Tr. 47—48). After working for the Postal Service for three years, he then began earning six hours of annual leave for every 80 hours worked (Tr. 52—53). But for every 80 hours of Leave Without Pay, Mr. Rojewski would lose a corresponding unit of annual leave during that pay period (Tr. 54—55).
3. Over a period of several weeks in early 2019, Mr. Rojewski took annual leave several times. He requested annual leave by calling an automated phone system. When Mr. Rojewski did that, his supervisor received an email notification of the leave, and then a leave slip (PS Form 3971) was generated. The supervisor signed the forms as they were generated, but Mr. Rojewski did not sign the forms when he took the annual leave. Only later, when he met with his supervisor in March and April 2019, did Mr. Rojewski sign the forms. (Resp. Exh. 11; Tr. 16–20, 159162).
4. In April 2019, management met with Mr. Rojewski and his union representative to discuss his attendance. The parties also discussed, and agreed to, a temporary transfer to the Monroe Post Office. (Tr. 84).
5. Soon after, Mr. Rojewski began working temporarily at the Monroe Post Office (Tr. 87—88). During this time, there were issues with his timecard, and he had to orally report his hours to his supervisors for about six weeks (Tr. 88).
6. Mr. Rojewski resigned from the Postal Service in September 2019 (Tr. 91). A comparison of his used and earned annual leave shows that he had a negative 52-hour annual leave balance when he resigned (Resp. Exh. 7 at 2; Tr. 66—68). In October 2019, the Postal Service issued Mr. Rojewski an invoice for $685.95 for the 52 hours of overdrawn annual leave. This invoice was sent to his last known address. (Resp. Exh. 1).
7. When the October invoice was not paid by the end of the calendar year, the Postal Service issued another invoice for $167.75 in January 2020, to recover the taxes Mr. Rojewski owed on the unpaid invoice. This invoice was also sent to his last known address. (Resp. Exh. 2).
8. When Mr. Rojewski failed to respond to either of those invoices, the Postal Service transferred the debt to the Treasury Department for collection. In January 2021, Treasury notified Mr. Rojewski of its intent to garnish his wages for the debt, including collection fees, for a total of $891.74. (Treasury Collection Notice). Mr. Rojewski requested a hearing, and the matter was referred to the Judicial Officer for further adjudication.

DECISION

A retiring or separating employee's negative annual leave balance equates to a salary overpayment, entitling the Postal Service to recover the monetary value of the paid but unearned annual leave. To recover, the Postal Service must prove that it made the salary overpayments, the amount of the overpayments, and that the employee was not entitled to them. Employee and Labor Relations Manual, § 512.72; Amerson v. United States Postal Service, AWG 21-319, 2022 WL 622379 (February 1, 2022); Reneau v. United States Postal Service, AO 15-211, 2016 WL 10572230 (August 2, 2016). Here, the Postal Service has proved through documentary evidence and witness testimony that Mr. Rojewski took the disputed annual leave, that he overdrew his annual leave, and that he did not earn enough annual leave to overcome the negative 52-hour balance by the time he separated from the Postal Service.
In his defense, Mr. Rojewski claimed that management often had to manually enter his time due to problems with his timecard or the timekeeping system. There is no dispute that this happened, but Mr. Rojewski further alleges that the Postal Service made many mistakes when it entered his time. Most importantly, he argues that the Postal Service charged him with annual leave on days that he actually worked.
Except for one day, this argument fails. When pressed during the hearing to cite specific examples to support this argument, Mr. Rojewski claimed he worked on June 1, 2019, but was not paid for that date. During a discussion of that issue, and after referring to the time records for that date, the record established that Mr. Rojewski was paid for that date. (Tr. 106—15). More generally, Mr. Rojewski also conceded that on many of the days at issue he did, in fact, take annual leave. Mr. Rojewski did, however, credibly testify that he worked on February 25, 2019, even though the Postal Service’s time records show him on annual leave that day (Tr. 120–22; Resp. Exh. 10 at 17). Because the Postal Service could not produce a leave slip for this date,¹ I find that Mr. Rojewski was improperly charged for annual leave when he actually worked on that date.  
In a similar vein, Mr. Rojewski argues that the PS Form 3971 forms in the record were forged and do not represent actual annual leave that he used. In response, the Postal Service’s witness credibly testified that Mr. Rojewski in fact signed the forms in her presence (Tr. 159-62). On this record, I therefore find the Postal Service’s account more persuasive and hold that there is no credible evidence supporting Mr. Rojewski’s assertion that the Postal Service forged his leave slips.
Finally, Mr. Rojewski alleged that the IRS offset $661 from a tax return to collect a part of the debt. At the hearing, Mr. Rojewski did not have any documents to support that assertion. I therefore told him that he could supplement the record after the hearing with any evidence supporting that assertion. (Tr. 100–04). Mr. Rojewski did not, however, file any documents. 

ORDER

The Postal Service has proved by a preponderance of the evidence that it paid Mr. Rojewski annual leave he did not earn, except for eight hours on February 25, 2019. He is therefore liable for 44 hours of overdrawn annual leave, related taxes, and related Treasury fees. After recalculating the debt, related taxes, and treasury fees based on 44 hours of overdrawn annual leave, the Treasury Department, acting as the Postal Service’s collection agent, may collect the debt by administrative wage garnishment.