Postal Bill Includes Provision to Reduce Federal Workers’ Compensation Benefits
Under the current federal workers’ compensation law, the Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA), if you are injured on the job as a federal employee, you are entitled to up to 2/3rds of your compensation at the time of injury on a tax-free basis (a measure designed to replicate the after tax income of an injured federal worker). If you have dependents, you may receive up to 75%. Medical costs are also reimbursed.
Provision in the Postal Reform Act would reduce that amount to 50%, once you become eligible for Social Security retirement income. Furthermore, compensation would no longer be available for dependents. If you are eligible for retirement before the enactment of the bill, you will not be affected. Additionally, if your disability exemption is considered “exempt,” or if you face “financial hardship,” you won’t feel the impact of the proposed legislation.
In addition to reducing the benefits available at retirement, the proposed law also has incentives to get injured workers off workers’ compensation and back to work.
In response to this and other pending legislation involving federal workers, Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, introduced a resolution “expressing the sense of the House of Representatives supporting federal employees.” She says that dozens of her colleagues have signed on.
In addition to the proposed revisions to the federal workers’ compensation program, the House of Representatives is considering a broad range of proposals, including acts that would:
- Require the federal employees increase their contributions to pension funding
- Eliminate the Federal Employees Retirement System annuity supplement
- Lower the FERS multiplier used to calculate annuities, from 1.1 % to 0.7%.
- Tie cost of living adjustments for federal retirees and Social Security beneficiaries to a chained Consumer Price Index
- Call for a mandatory reduction in the federal workforce by 2015
Contact Uliase & Uliase
For an appointment with an experienced New Jersey federal workers’ compensation lawyer, contact us online or call our office at (856) 310-9002. We meet with clients weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. We offer a free consultation for injured workers.
