P.S. Docket No. AO 21-52

INITIAL DECISION

The Postal Service is seeking to collect $3,039.80 from Charles Mulidore by administrative offset. The debt is based on a negative annual leave balance of 63.96 hours when Mr. Mulidore retired from the Postal Service in November 2020. Mr. Mulidore challenges 32 hours of the overdrawn leave but concedes the remaining hours. As explained below, the Postal Service has not proved the disputed amount. The petition is therefore granted in part and denied in part.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Mr. Mulidore worked for the Postal Service for 33 years, eventually reaching the position of Manager of Operations Program Support with the Greater South Carolina District (Tr. 31-32).
2. As a Postal Service employee who worked with the agency for more than 15 years, Mr. Mulidore earned 8 hours of annual leave every pay period (Tr. 17-18). At the beginning of each year, he was advanced all 208 hours of annual leave for each year before it was earned. (Tr. 18).
3. In 2016, Mr. Mulidore decided to run for a national office with his union, the National Association of Postal Supervisors (NAPS) (Tr. 35). To do this, he needed to travel throughout the country to campaign for the position. When he was not available to work, he used his annual leave. (Tr. 35-36).
4. Over time, Mr. Mulidore used up his annual leave, ultimately resulting in a negative annual leave balance beginning in pay period 20/2016 and running through pay period 1/2017 (Resp. Exh. 6).
5. In 2016, Mr. Mulidore won his campaign and started working with NAPS full-time. While working for NAPS, he was still on the Postal Service’s rolls, but he was in a non-pay status, which did not allow him to earn any leave to clear his negative leave balance. (Resp. Exh. 2; Tr. 19).
6. Having never worked another day to earn another hour of annual leave, Mr. Mulidore retired from the Postal Service in November 2020, leaving him with a negative annual leave balance of 63.96 hours. (Resp. Exh. 3 at 3).
7. The Postal Service issued Mr. Mulidore a Notice of Debt Determination and invoice for $3,039.80, which represents the value of the 63.96 hours of annual leave (Resp. Exh. 1). Mr. Mulidore filed a timely petition for a hearing challenging the debt. 

DECISION

A former 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 under the Debt Collection Act. Reneau v. United States Postal Service, AO 15-211, 2016 WL 10572230 (I.D. August 2, 2016); see also Employee and Labor Relations Manual § 512.721. 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. Chopra v. United States Postal Service, DCA 15-157, 2015 WL 13647641 (November 3, 2015).

After the Postal Service filed its Answer, Mr. Mulidore conceded that he had overdrawn his annual leave by 31.96 hours. But he asserted he did not take any annual leave from June 28 through July 1, 2016. To prove this, he provided his flight information for that week, demonstrating that he traveled back to the South Carolina area Monday night on June 27, 2016. (Pet. Exhs. 1, 2). Mr. Mulidore credibly testified that he would have no other reason to return to the South Carolina area other than to work because his family lived in another state (Tr. 61). According to his testimony, he finished out the work week, working 32 hours from June 28 through July 1, 2016 (Tr. 46-47, 61).¹

The Postal Service provided printouts of payroll journals from pay period 26/2015 through 1/2017, all showing the progression of Mr. Mulidore’s annual leave balance. It did not, however, provide any PS 3971 Request for or Notification of Absence forms showing that he took any leave during the disputed period. In his testimony,

Mr. Mulidore credibly explained that he would have provided a PS 3971 to his administrative assistant if he took any leave. And since the Postal Service provided no other evidence to refute Mr. Mulidore’s testimony, the Postal Service has not proved by a preponderance of the evidence that he used annual leave from June 28 through July 1. Accordingly, Mr. Mulidore is not liable for 32 hours of annual leave used in pay period 14/2016.

ORDER

The petition is granted in part and denied in part. Mr. Mulidore concedes 31.96 hours of unearned annual leave. The Postal Service may collect the amount due for 31.96 hours of annual leave. It may not collect for the remaining 32 hours.