P.S. Docket No. AO 21-327

INITIAL DECISION

The Postal Service seeks to collect two debts from Ms. Jones. The first is for 88 hours of overdrawn annual leave when Ms. Jones separated from the Postal Service in March 2021. The second is for health insurance premiums the Postal Service paid on behalf of Ms. Jones from August 2020 until March 2021 while she was in a Leave Without Pay status. 

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Ms. Jones worked at the Postal Service and was in an active pay status until August 21, 2020. She was then in a Leave Without Pay (LWOP) status until March 12, 2021, when her employment was terminated at the end of Pay Period 3. (Attachment to Answer at 9). Ms. Jones’s hourly salary was $30.67 per hour as of the date she was terminated (Resp. Exh. 1 at 51¹ ).
2. At the end of 2019, Ms. Jones had an annual leave balance of negative 56 hours (Tr. 1 at 19; Attachment to Answer at 11). By Pay Period 18 in 2020, after accounting for leave she had earned and used, Ms. Jones had a negative 88-hour annual leave balance (Tr. 1 at 18–26; Attachment to Answer at 42). She was then in an LWOP status for the rest of the year, leaving her with that same negative annual leave balance at the end of 2020 (Tr. 28–29; Attachment to Answer at 49) and in March 2021 when she separated from the Postal Service (Resp. Exh. 1 at 51).
3. In May 2021, the Postal Service issued Ms. Jones a Notice of Debt Determinationnotifying her of a debt based on the negative annual leave balance. The Noticealso advised Ms. Jones of her right to challenge the debt under 39 C.F.R. Part 966 (Attachment to Answer at 9). This was followed by an invoice dated June 25, 2021, setting the amount of the debt at $2,640.15 (Attachment to Answer at 8).²
4. As noted, Ms. Jones was in an LWOP status as of August 21, 2020, but the Postal Service did not give her a PS Form 3111 until May 2021, well after her employment was terminated. That form would have provided Ms. Jones with the option of ending her health insurance that was being provided by the Postal Service. (Resp. Exh. 1 at 64; Tr. 2 at 21–22).
5. The Postal Service issued Ms. Jones three invoices between November 2020 and February 2021 asserting its right to collect the employee portion of her health insurance premiums while she was on LWOP between August 2020 and March 2021. The total sought by the three invoices is $2,004.03. (Attachment to Answer at 3–5). Then, in April 2021, the Postal Service issued Ms. Jones a Notice of Debt Determination advising of her right to challenge that debt under 39 C.F.R. Part 966 (Attachment to Answer at 6).

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Ms. Jones filed a petition with the Judicial Officer Department in July 2021. The petition was mistakenly docketed as DCA 21-327 under 39 C.F.R. Part 965. Because the petition should have been docketed under 39 C.F.R. Part 966, it is now being re-docketed as AO 21-327. The petition was filed before Ms. Jones filed for further review by the Accounting Service Center, as contemplated by the Notice of Debt Determinationand 39 C.F.R. § 966.4(a). But because both parties proceeded with a hearing, I find that they have waived any further review by the Accounting Service Center. And this procedural history does not affect the merits of the case. The only substantive result of the re-docketing is that Ms. Jones will be given the right to appeal this decision under 39 C.F.R. § 966.11.

DECISION

Negative Annual Leave Balance 
A separating employee’s negative annual leave balance equates to a salary overpayment, entitling the Postal Service to recover the monetary value of the unearned annual leave under the Debt Collection Act. Employee and Labor Relations Manual(ELM) § 512.72. To recover, the Postal Service must prove it made the salary overpayments, the amount of the overpayments, and that the employee was not entitled to them. 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 that Ms. Jones had a negative 88-hour annual leave balance in March 2020 when she separated from the Postal Service. The Postal Service now seeks to collect $2,640.15 for those hours. Ms. Jones has not presented a valid defense to this debt. She has not challenged either the number of hours or the value of those hours. She has therefore failed to prove that there is any reason to alleviate or otherwise offset the debt.
Accordingly, this part of the petition is denied.
Health Insurance Premiums
When an employee goes into an LWOP status, the Postal Service’s internal regulations presume that the employee wants the Postal Service to continue paying for the employee’s health insurance (Tr. 37–38; ELM § 525.222e.). To confirm that presumption, as soon as the Postal Service determines the employee is in an LWOP status, it must provide the employee with a Form 3111, which allows the employee to decline health insurance by signing and returning the form. If, however, the employee does not return the form, the Postal Service will automatically continue the employee’s enrollment in their then-current FEHB plan and will pay the employee’s portion of the premiums. (Attachment to Answer at 60–62; ELM § 525.222e). 
But the Postal Service did not send the Form 3111 to Ms. Jones in August 2020 when she went into an LWOP status. Rather, the Form 3111 was not sent until well after Ms. Jones’s employment was terminated, thus depriving her of any meaningful opportunity to cancel her insurance while she was in a non-pay status. Therefore, the question to be decided in this petition is whether the failure to send the Form 3111 while Ms. Jones was in a non-pay status should alleviate her responsibility for her health insurance premiums during that time. Or put another way, what are the consequences to the Postal Service for violating its own regulation by failing to provide Ms. Jones with a Form 3111?  
While the Postal Service’s regulations require the Form 3111 be sent, they do not set out the consequences for failing to do so. But more importantly, the Postal Service’s regulations do provide that an employee’s health insurance will continue unless the employee elects otherwise. Thus, as a practical matter, the only consequence of failing to provide an employee with a Form 3111 is that the employee’s health insurance continues. I therefore hold that without any specific consequence for failing to provide a Form 3111, an employee is not excused from paying for their health insurance while they are in a non-pay status. This conclusion is also supported by the fact that Ms. Jones had health insurance under her FEHB plan during her time in a non-pay status. She must therefore now pay for that benefit.³  

ORDER

The petition is denied. The Postal Service may collect the debts underlying this petition by administrative offset.