P.S. Docket No. AWG 23-205

FINAL DECISION

The Postal Service and the Treasury Department are seeking to collect a debt from Charan Fouche by administrative wage garnishment. The debt is based on the cash value of Mr. Fouche’s negative annual leave balance when he separated from the Postal Service. The record establishes that he had a negative annual leave balance. But Mr. Fouche believes he is not responsible for the debt because he was forced to use annual leave when the Postal Service improperly denied his leave request under the Emergency Federal Employee Leave program. As discussed below, however, the Postal Service properly denied Mr. Fouche’s leave request. The appeal is therefore denied. 

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Request for leave under the Emergency Federal Employee Leave program
   Mr. Fouche worked for the Postal Service until April 9, 2021 (Exh. 3 at 38; Tr. 11–12). On March 25, 2021, Mr. Fouche met with the local Postmaster to ask for leave from March 26 to April 17 under the Emergency Federal Employee Leave program (referred to by the parties as both EFEL and Covid leave). During their meeting, Mr. Fouche gave the Postmaster a Form 3971 to request the leave. On the form, Mr. Fouche checked a box indicating that he needed the leave to take care of his child. Mr. Fouche did not, however, otherwise explain why he was asking for childcare leave on non-schooldays during that 23-day period. (Exh. 11 at 96).  
   The Postmaster denied the request because Mr. Fouche had neither supplied information required by the Covid leave program nor stated the specific days his child would be in school (Exh. 11 at 96; Tr. 34–35, 77–78, 82–83). But the Postmaster did tell Mr. Fouche that his request would be granted if he brought back the proper paperwork (Tr. 34–35). 
   Mr. Fouche did return at a later, unspecified time with more paperwork, but not all the documentation required by the Covid leave program (Tr. 78–80). His request was therefore denied again (Tr. 78). Mr. Fouche eventually met with the Postmaster a third time. But by then Mr. Fouche decided to resign from the Postal Service (Tr. 78, 81). As of his separation date, he had a balance of -72.13 hours (Exh. 3 at 53; Tr. 19). 
   During the period he requested Covid leave (March 26 – April 17), Mr. Fouche used 56 hours of annual leave (Exhs. 2–3).   

2. Procedural History
   On April 13, 2022, the Postal Service issued an invoice to Mr. Fouche for $1,462.23 based on the value of the negative annual leave balance to his last known address (Exh. 14¹ ). When the invoice was not paid or disputed, the Postal Service transferred the debt to the Treasury Department for further collection action. In August 2022, the Treasury Department issued a Notice of Intent to Initiate Administrative Wage Garnishment Proceedings (Exh. 15). The Treasury Department sought to collect $1,900.90, which represented the original amount of the debt plus applicable fees.  
   In response, Mr. Fouche requested a hearing to challenge the debt (Exh. 16). The matter was then referred to the Postal Service’s Judicial Officer Department for further proceedings. The parties submitted documents, and a hearing was held in September 2023.    

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. ELM § 512.721. To recover the monetary value of the annual leave, the Postal Service must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that it made the salary overpayments, the amount of the overpayments, and that the employee was not entitled to them. Emerson 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). The Postal Service has met that burden by proving that Mr. Fouche had a negative annual leave balance of 72.13 hours valued at $1,462.23. After adding the fees imposed by the Treasury Department, the total value of the debt is $1,900.90. 
In his defense, Mr. Fouche argues that the debt should be reduced or eliminated because the Postal Service improperly denied his request for Covid leave. In this case, the maximum reduction possible would be 56 hours, which equals the amount of annual leave used by Mr. Fouche during the relevant period.   
The Postal Service’s policies for taking Covid leave required employees to file several documents when requesting leave. Most basically, Mr. Fouche was required to submit: 

(1) a Form 3971,  
(2) a COVID-19 Emergency Federal Employee Leave (EFEL) Employee Notification and Leave Request Form, and 
(3) an Employee Agreement in connection with Emergency Federal Employee Leave Provided Under Section 4001 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. 
(Exh. 11, Section III.1). 
Because Mr. Fouche was requesting leave due to his child’s school closure, he also needed to submit:  

1. the name of his child,
2. the name of his child’s school,
3. a written description of the situation explaining how the school was affected by COVID, and
4. a written explanation about the specific reasons he would be unable to work during the requested hours of leave.

(Exh. 11, Section III.2.5). 
The record establishes that Mr. Fouche did not provide this required documentation. In his defense, Mr. Fouche asserts that documents in the Postal Service’s possession related to his leave request were destroyed in a flood. In response, the Postal Service does not dispute that some of its records relating to Mr. Fouche’s (and other employees’) request for Covid leave were destroyed in a flood (Exh. 6 at 64). But based on the record and testimony, there is also no reason to believe that those records were included in the documents Mr. Fouche provided with his request for Covid leave. There is therefore no basis for relief from the debt based on the inadvertently destroyed documents.  

ORDER

The petition is denied. The Postal Service and the Treasury Department may collect the debt underlying this petition by administrative wage garnishment.