United States Department of Labor 

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

__________________________________________ 

J.V., Appellant 

and 

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, POST OFFICE, 

Pittsburgh, PA, Employer 

__________________________________________ 

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Docket No. 15-0981 

Issued: August 14, 2015 

Appearances: Case Submitted on the Record

Appellant, pro se 

Office of Solicitor, for the Director 

DECISION AND ORDER 

Before: 

PATRICIA H. FITZGERALD, Deputy Chief Judge 

ALEC J. KOROMILAS, Alternate Judge 

JAMES A. HAYNES, Alternate Judge 

JURISDICTION 

On March 31, 2015 appellant filed a timely appeal from a December 18, 2014 merit 

decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP).1

 Pursuant to the Federal 

Employees’ Compensation Act2

 (FECA) and 20 C.F.R. §§ 501.2(c) and 501.3, the Board has 

jurisdiction over the merits of this case. 

ISSUE 

The issue is whether appellant has met his burden of proof to establish compensation for 

wage loss for two hours of leave without pay on July 18, 2014. 

 1

 On appeal, appellant disagreed with OWCP’s denial of his request to change doctors and submitted letters from 

OWCP dated December 18, 2013 and August 4 to 19, 2014. The Board, however, has no jurisdiction over this issue 

as the letters from OWCP are informative in nature and there is no final adverse decision concerning that issue 

within 180 days from the present appeal. See 20 C.F.R. §§ 501.2(c) and 501.3. 

2

 5 U.S.C. § 8101 et seq. 
2

FACTUAL HISTORY 

On October 11, 2005 appellant, then a 45-year-old automation clerk, filed a traumatic 

injury claim alleging that on that date he felt a sharp pain in his left lower leg by the groin area 

while pulling off racks of mail from the Delivery Bar Code Sorter (DBCS) machine. He stopped 

work that day. OWCP accepted a bilateral inguinal hernia without obstruction or gangrene and 

paid appropriate benefits, including a hernia repair on November 29, 2005. Appellant returned 

to full duty effective January 16, 2006.3 

OWCP subsequently expanded the claim to include diaphragmatic obstruction, hernia 

with obstruction and bilateral illioinguinal and illiophypogastric neuropathy (abdominal 

cutaneous nerve entrapment). 

Appellant worked intermittently. Effective December 2, 2010 he stopped all work when 

the employing establishment had no light-duty work available. Appellant was then paid 

compensation on the periodic rolls. He returned to part-time work at the employing 

establishment on July 14, 2014. 

On August 13, 2014 OWCP received a vocational rehabilitation report from a vocational 

rehabilitation counselor regarding service dates for appellant from July 14 to August 12, 2014. 

This report summarized a meeting with appellant on July 18, 2014 which lasted 2.3 hours at 

Romo’s Place Restaurant. 

On October 1, 2014 appellant filed a claim for disability compensation for 8 hours on 

September 28, 2014, for 8 hours on September 29, 2014 and for 2 hours on July 18, 2014, for a 

total of 18 hours of leave without pay (LWOP). On the Form CA-7a, time analysis form, he 

indicated that the two hours claimed on July 18, 2014 was for a meeting with the vocational 

rehabilitation counselor. 

On October 9, 2014 OWCP advised appellant of the deficiencies in his claim. It 

requested that he provide medical evidence establishing disability to support the dates claimed. 

Appellant was accorded 30 days to submit the additional evidence. 

Appellant submitted supporting documentation that he was in the hospital on 

September 28 and 29, 2014 for testicular pain. He submitted a July 18, 2014 authorization for a 

certified vocational rehabilitation counselor and case manager, to review and release his records 

and information pertaining to his work-related injury. 

By decision dated December 18, 2014, OWCP denied appellant’s disability compensation 

claim for two hours of leave without pay on July 18, 2014. The decision noted that FECA only 

provides compensation for medical appointments. Meetings with individuals at the employing 

establishment were not compensable. 

 3

 Under OWCP file number xxxxxx730, appellant has an accepted claim for left plantar fibromatosis, due to a 

February 1, 1999 work injury. Under that claim, there is no evidence that he sought medical treatment after 

September 29, 2009. Appellant eventually resumed work. 
3

LEGAL PRECEDENT 

Under FECA, the term disability means the incapacity, because of an employment injury, 

to earn the wages that the employee was receiving at the time of injury.4

 For each period of 

disability claimed, the employee has the burden of establishing that he was disabled for work as 

a result of the accepted employment injury.5

 The Board will not require OWCP to pay 

compensation for disability in the absence of evidence directly addressing the specific dates of 

disability for which compensation is claimed. To do so, would essentially allow an employee to 

self-certify his or her disability and entitlement to compensation.6

 

ANALYSIS 

OWCP accepted that appellant sustained bilateral inguinal hernia without obstruction or 

gangrene, a diaphragmatic obstruction, hernia with obstruction and bilateral Illioinguinal and 

Illiophypogastric neuropathy (abdonminal cutaneous nerve entrapment) and paid appropriate 

benefits, including a hernia repair on November 29, 2005. Appellant claimed wage-loss 

compensation for two hours on July 18, 2014, eight hours on September 28, 2014 and eight 

hours on September 29, 2014, for a total of eight hours leave without pay. OWCP accepted 16 

hours of disability compensation for the period September 28 to 29, 2014, but denied the claimed 

two hours of disability compensation for July 18, 2014. 

On the Form CA-7a, time analysis form, appellant indicated that the two hours claimed 

on July 18, 2014 was for a meeting with a vocational rehabilitation counselor. The record 

reflects that he did meet with that vocational rehabilitation counselor on July 18, 2014 to discuss 

a return to work and to sign a release of his records. 

Chapter 8.100(4)(a)(2) of the procedure manual states that Section 8104 of FECA 

provides that a permanently disabled individual may be directed to undergo vocational 

rehabilitation. The injured worker receives compensation while cooperating and participating in 

the rehabilitation process.7

 

As appellant met with his vocational rehabilitation counselor on July 18, 2014 to discuss 

a return to work and authorize the release of his records, he should receive compensation for the 

meeting. As such, appellant has met his burden of proof to establish compensation for two hours 

on July 18, 2014. The case will be remanded to OWCP for appropriate action. 

 4 William Nimitz, Jr., 30 ECAB 567, 570 (1979). 

5

 See Amelia S. Jefferson, 57 ECAB 183 (2005). See also David H. Goss, 32 ECAB 24, 27 (1980). 

6 See William A. Archer, 55 ECAB 674, 679 (2004); Fereidoon Kharabi, 52 ECAB 291, 293 (2001). 

7

 Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 8 - Rehabilitation, Introduction to Rehabilitation, Chapter 

8.100(4)(a)(2) (August 2012). 
4

CONCLUSION 

The Board finds that appellant has established entitlement to wage-loss benefits for two 

hours on July 18, 2014. 

ORDER 

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the December 18, 2014 decision of the Office of 

Workers’ Compensation Programs is set aside and the case remanded for appropriate action 

consistent with this decision. 

Issued: August 14, 2015 

Washington, DC 

 

 Patricia H. Fitzgerald, Deputy Chief Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

 

 Alec J. Koromilas, Alternate Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

 

 James A. Haynes, Alternate Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board