A federal employee’s medical condition is often the direct cause of termination and removal from the job, however your federal agency just as often neglects to mention the real reason, and delineates the cause as “excessive absenteeism” or other such justification.
The best-case scenario would, of course, be for the agency to state the real underlying cause, which would entitle the employee to plead the Bruner Presumption in their OPM Disability Retirement application package. In absence of removal for medical inability, there is still hope to employ use of the Bruner Presumption, which would encompass a show of evidence of emails of other correspondence between the employee and the agency around the time preceding removal of the medical condition being the cause of performance and conduct deficiencies, or excessive absences. Such material connects the dots for the OPM examiner and may just be sufficient to shift the burden of proof to OPM.
There are so many things you can do to boost your OPM Disability Retirement application and give yourself a greater advantage. Attorneys certainly cost money, but it behooves you to do a cost-benefit analysis and ensure that you are not squandering an opportunity to get expert guidance and potentially gain tens of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
Call 800-801-0598 or email office@pinesfederal.com to get top-notch legal assistance and make use of Pines Federal advantage!
Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative.
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