U.S. Postmaster General Slapped with Civil Rights Class Action

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A former letter carrier has filed a proposed class action against United States Postal Service Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan claiming she was discriminated against by the agency due to her disability and not properly allowed to challenge decisions made by the agency.

The plaintiff claims the Postal Service unlawfully denied her—and proposed class members—the opportunity to work within her medical restrictions in mid-September 2011 and told her that “there was no work available for her to perform within her medical restrictions.” According to the case, the plaintiff was fully capable of working within her medical restrictions and communicated this fact to her employers. Yet, the Postal Service allegedly did not allow her to work. The plaintiff claims she and proposed class members had no recourse to challenge the Postal Service’s position because they were not granted their due process rights.

This complaint comes with a complicated backstory. Filed in New Jersey district court, the lawsuit stems from a 2012 class action mixed case appeal filed by the plaintiff claiming she was “constructively suspended or removed without procedural due process” and discriminated against because of her disability. A decision finalized on January 2, 2015 dismissed the appeal on jurisdictional grounds. The plaintiff, however, contended that she was not a class member of that case. On April 18, 2016, the plaintiff then filed a formal, individual complaint with the Postal Service, which was dismissed a month later.

The proposed class covered by the suit includes “all preference eligible employed by the Postal Service who had documented impairments and who were involuntarily denied the opportunity to work for more than 14 consecutive days or longer and who were not accorded their fundamental due process rights to notice and an opportunity to challenge the Postal Service’s decisions to deny them work.”