United States Department of Labor

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

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Y.R., Appellant

and

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, POST OFFICE, 

Harrisburg, PA, Employer

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Docket No. 21-1394

Issued: June 22, 2022

Appearances: Case Submitted on the Record

Alan J. Shapiro, Esq., for the appellant1

Office of Solicitor, for the Director

ORDER REMANDING CASE

Before:

PATRICIA H. FITZGERALD, Deputy Chief Judge

JANICE B. ASKIN, Judge

JAMES D. McGINLEY, Alternate Judge

On September 22, 2021 appellant filed a timely appeal from a September 3, 20212 merit 

decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). The Clerk of the Appellate 

Boards assigned Docket No. 21-1394.

On August 12, 2020 appellant, then a 51-year-old rural carrier, filed an occupational 

disease claim (Form CA-2) alleging thatshe developed mental stress and anxiety due to factors of 

her federal employment. She asserted that she first became aware of her claimed conditions and 

realized it was caused or aggravated by her federal employment on May 2, 2020. Appellant

stopped work on June 1, 2020. She asserted that a series of events contributed to her condition, 

1

In all cases in which a representative has been authorized in a matter before the Board, no claim for a fee for legal 

or other service performed on appeal before the Board is valid unless approved by the Board. 20 C.F.R. § 501.9(e). 

No contract for a stipulated fee or on a contingent fee basis will be approved by the Board. Id. An attorney or 

representative’s collection of a fee without the Board’s approval may constitute a misdemeanor, subject to fine or 

imprisonment for up to one year or both. Id.; see also 18 U.S.C. § 292. Demands for payment of fees to a 

representative, prior to approval by the Board, may be reported to appropriate authorities for investigation.

2 The Board notes that the application for review (AB-1) requests an appeal from a purported September 16, 2021 

decision of OWCP. However, no such decision is found in the case record. The only final adverse decision of OWCP 

within the Board’s jurisdiction is the September 3, 2021 merit decision.
2

including a hostile work environment created by her coworkers, which made it impossible for her 

to do her job and sabotaged her training. Appellant asserted that her supervisor, D.K., ignored the 

hostile work environment and denied her elements of on-the-job training including receiving 

hands-on mail casing and sorting training from an experienced mail carrier. She alleged that she 

was denied a line of travel document necessary for proper training. Appellant asserted that the 

postmaster refused to answer work-related questions. She alleged disparate treatment when 

another rural carrier started at the employing establishment and received the training that appellant 

was denied. Appellant alleged that a coworker, A.G., was disgruntled because he believed her 

route should have been awarded to him. She asserted that the postmaster, C.B., attempted to 

intimidate her on May 20 and 30, 2020 when she explained that she did not feel adequately trained 

and safe to deliver her mail route. Appellant asserted that she was discriminated against due to 

her Hispanic ethnicity and physical disabilities stemming from a neck, back and shoulder injury 

sustained in a work-related motor vehicle accident on December 24, 2010.3 She noted that these 

incidents caused her to develop stress and erratic blood pressure. OWCP assigned this claim 

OWCP File No. xxxxxx121.

By decision dated November 20, 2020, OWCP denied appellant’s claim for an 

employment-related emotional condition, finding that the evidence of record was insufficient to

establish that a medical condition arose during the course of employment and within the scope of 

compensable work factors. Therefore, it concluded that the requirements had not been met to 

establish an injury as defined by FECA.

By decision dated February 3, 2021, an OWCP hearing representative vacated the decision 

dated November 20, 2020 and remanded the case for further development. It found that OWCP 

failed to properly develop the factual component of the claim and addressed only a few of the 

stress incidents set forth in appellant’s numerous personal statements prior to issuance of the 

November 20, 2020 decision.

By decision dated April 5, 2021, OWCP denied appellant’s claim for an employmentrelated emotional condition claim, finding that the evidence of record was insufficient to establish 

that a medical condition arose during the course of employment and within the scope of 

compensable work factors. Therefore, it concluded that the requirements had not been met to 

establish an injury as defined by FECA.

By decision dated September 3, 2021, OWCP’s hearing representative affirmed the 

April 5, 2021 decision. In this decision, it referenced a prior traumatic injury claim filed by 

appellant, OWCP File No. xxxxxx416, for injuries sustained in a work-related motor vehicle 

accident on December 24, 2010. OWCP accepted that claim for concussion without loss of 

consciousness, cervical strain, lumbar strain, right shoulder and trapezius strain, and right shoulder 

impingement.

4

 The hearing representative found that the evidence of record failed to establish that 

3 The Board notes that appellant filed a prior claim for a traumatic injury sustained on December 24, 2010, which 

was assigned OWCP File No. xxxxxx416. 

4

Id.
3

the accepted traumatic injury of December 24, 2010 under OWCP File No. xxxxxx416, caused or 

contributed to appellant’s alleged stress claim. 

The Board has duly considered the matter and concludes that this case is not in posture for 

decision. 

In the present claim, OWCP File No. xxxxxx121, appellant alleged that she developed 

stress in part due to physical disabilities stemming from a neck, back and shoulder injury sustained 

in a work-related motor vehicle accident on December 24, 2010underOWCP File No. xxxxxx416. 

Therefore, for a full and fair adjudication, the case must be remanded to OWCP to administratively 

combine OWCP File Nos. xxxxxx121 and xxxxxx416. This will allow OWCP to consider all of 

the relevant claim files in developing appellant’s current compensation claim. Following this and 

other such further development as deemed necessary, OWCP shall issue a de novo merit decision.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the September 3, 2021 decision of the Office of 

Workers’ Compensation Programs is set aside, and the case is remanded for further proceedings 

consistent with this order of the Board.

Issued: June 22, 2022

Washington, DC

Patricia H. Fitzgerald, Deputy Chief Judge

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Janice B. Askin, Judge

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

James D. McGinley, Alternate Judge

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board