P.S. Docket No. DCA 22-193

FINAL DECISION UNDER THE DEBT COLLECTION ACT OF 1982

Respondent United States Postal Service seeks to collect from Petitioner Jill Ghianni an alleged $1,046.39 debt incurred when the Postal Service changed four days of annual leave and one day of holiday leave to leave without pay (LWOP). As explained below, the Postal Service proved that it had a right to change the annual and holiday leave to LWOP, and it proved the amount of the debt. The petition is therefore denied.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Ms. Ghianni was a rural carrier at the Carmel Valley carrier annex in California. Brian Ivory was her manager, and Nicholai Blair Lopez was her supervisor. (Tr. at 42, 99 – 100).
2. Ms. Ghianni was working on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, which was a rainy day (Tr. at 162).
3. Normally, Ms. Ghianni loaded her mail and packages into her truck in the parking lot. However, because it was raining, she backed her truck up to the roll-up door, which was open, at the loading dock. Ms. Ghianni turned the engine off, and she loaded her truck. (Tr. at 112, 163-64).
4. As soon as Ms. Ghianni started to drive away from the roll-up door, her coworker Edward Barzee started to lower the door, and she heard someone yelling at her (Tr. at 148 – 49, 162, 164).
5. Ms. Ghianni put her truck in park and exited the vehicle (Tr. at 164).
6. Mr. Barzee loudly complained to Ms. Ghianni that her truck was emitting exhaust into the building (Tr. at 112, 117, 164).
7. Ms. Ghianni thought that the roll-up door was being lowered on top of her head (Tr. at 64, 112, 117 – 19).
8. Ms. Ghianni got back in her truck, and Mr. Barzee closed the roll-up door. Ms. Ghianni drove to the parking lot. She was too upset to start her route, so she took a lunch break before she performed her route that day, Tuesday, February 15, 2022. (Tr. 165 – 67).
9. Ms. Ghianni’s scheduled days off are Wednesdays and Sundays (Tr. at 51).
10. Ms. Ghianni was off work on Thursday and Friday, February 17 – 18, 2022 (Resp. Exhs. 4, 6). Those two days are not at issue.
11. Ms. Ghianni called in for emergency annual leave for February 19, 2022 (Saturday), February 22, 2022 (Tuesday), February 24, 2022 (Thursday), and February 25, 2022 (Friday) (Tr. at 50 – 52; Resp. Exh. 6). Monday, February 21, 2022, was a Postal Service holiday (Tr. at 52; Resp. Exh. 6). Those five days are at issue here.
12. After the incident at the roll-up door, Ms. Ghianni called the Postal Service’s Employee Assistance Program for mental health counseling, but she could not get an appointment until June 2022. Ms. Ghianni genuinely considered the days that she was absent from work after the incident at the roll-up door to be necessary mental health breaks. (Tr. at 167 – 68, 170).
13. On February 25, 2022, Mr. Ivory mailed Ms. Ghianni a Duty Status letter stating that she had been off work since February 17, 2022, and that:

In order to continue you in an approved paid leave status it is necessary for you to provide current medical and / or acceptable documentation explaining the reason for your absence, in order to support your request for leave. … To avoid interruption of pay, this documentation must be submitted within five (5) days of your receipt of this letter. If you fail to return to work and document your absence or if your documentation is deemed unacceptable, your absence will be charged to LWOP (Leave Without Pay) or AWOL (Absence Without Leave), in accordance with the ELM.
(Tr. at 43 – 46; Resp. Exh. 4).

14. When Ms. Ghianni returned to work, she did not provide any justification for the emergency annual leave to Mr. Ivory (Tr. at 46).
15. After Ms. Ghianni returned to work, Mr. Ivory and Mr. Lopez orally requested that she provide supporting documentation for the emergency annual leave. Ms. Ghianni never provided any justification to Mr. Ivory or Mr. Lopez. (Tr. at 46 – 47, 53 – 54, 102 – 103).
16. Ms. Ghianni was paid $1,486.35 for the emergency annual leave and holiday leave (Tr. at 19; Resp. Exh. 2 at 3).
17. Because Ms. Ghianni did not provide any justification for the use of emergency annual leave, the Postal Service later changed that leave and the holiday leave to LWOP (Tr. at 20-22, 48; Resp. Exh. 2 at 2).
18. The Postal Service relied on Section 372.23 of Handbook F-21 for the change of the holiday leave to LWOP. That section provides that in order to receive holiday pay, an employee must have been in a pay status for the last hour of scheduled work before the holiday or the first hour of scheduled work after the holiday. (Tr. at 24 – 25; Resp. Exh. 8).
19. Including credits for applicable deductions, the amount of the debt in this case is $1,046.39 (Tr. at 20, 23, 25 – 26; Resp. Exhs. 2 at 1, 9 at 1).
20. If the $1,046.39 debt is paid, the Postal Service will credit Ms. Ghianni with 32 hours of annual leave (Tr. at 26, 28; Resp. Exh. 9 at 1).

DECISION

Postal Service policy dictates that an employee’s annual leave must be approved in advance. Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM) § 512.411.¹ There is, however, an exception for emergency annual leave. ELM § 512.412.² However, in such cases, employees must substantiate the emergency to their supervisor. ELM § 511.43 (“[E]mployees must provide acceptable evidence for absences when required.”); Handbook F-21 § 323.2 (“As soon as possible after return to duty, employees must submit PS Form 3971 and explain the reason for the emergency to their supervisor.”). In this case, Mr. Ivory changed Ms. Ghianni’s annual and holiday leave to LWOP because she did not respond to his requests for evidence justifying her use of emergency annual leave (Findings 13 – 15, 17 – 18).
Based on Ms. Ghianni’s testimony, I determined that she genuinely thought the days that she was absent from work after the February 15, 2022 incident were necessary mental health breaks (Finding 12). But when Mr. Ivory and Mr. Lopez asked Ms. Ghianni to provide evidence justifying her use of emergency annual leave, she did not do so (Findings 13 – 15). The Postal Service proved that it had a right to change Ms. Ghianni’s annual and holiday leave to LWOP because she failed to provide any justification for the emergency annual leave. The Postal Service also proved the amount of the debt at issue. (Findings 17 – 19).

ORDER

The petition is denied. The Postal Service may collect $1,046.39 by involuntary administrative salary offset. The 32 hours of annual leave charged to Ms. Ghianni will be restored to her upon payment in accordance with Postal Service policy (Finding 20).