disability retirement

My agency has not "accommodated" me so that I can perform essential elements of my job. However, they have been providing work for me to meet my restrictions, elsewhere in the facility. I have not done my bid job for 12 yrs now. Will OPM take note that my agency has been providing work for me for so long, and possibly deny my application because of that ? Thanks

If you had an one the job injury and are covered under OWCP at the time when you were able to come back to work, or where they had to "accommodadate" you a new job that you have been doing for 12 years now, you may have a problem. If you have a new job discription since 12 years ago that you haven't performed, I'm sure that you signed a new job discription since then. I'm pretty sure you will have a problem. If you have a condition that is a disese, or heart problem, it may be different. Lets see what the experts have to say.

Everybody needs to be very careful in using the term "accommodate". It is a term of art, with specific legal connotations for disability retirement law. Putting together Bracey v. OPM, Ancheta, and Smith v. OPM, as well as some other cases, it is my view that "limited duty job offers", no matter how old and how entrenched, do not constitute an "accommodation" under the law, if the individual is still slotted in a position which has not changed. Thus, if the PS Form 50 or the SF 50 still shows that the individual is in the same official position, it doesn't matter what a piece of paper entitled "Limited Duty Job Offer" says. Nothing has changed. Tomorrow, you could get a new supervisor who comes in and says, Everyone must work the job that they are slotted in -- and there would be nothing that an employee could argue against such a supervisor, because the supervisor can point to your official position and say, That's your job.

In my opinion, if you cannot do the essential elements of your official position, you are eligible for disability retirement.

Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire