Robert R. McGill Administrative Law Blog on Lawyers.com

     Some have asked me whether acceptance of a temporary light duty assignment is of concern in a disability retirement application.  If you look at SF 3112B (Supervisor's Statement), Section E(3), the question is whether the employee has "been reassigned to 'light duty' or a temporary position?  If the Supervisor answers "No", then of course there is no issue which would arise which would impact a disability retirement application; if the Supervisor answers "yes", then it can actually be used as an argument for a disability retirement application, because it can be argued that the fact that the Agency has reassigned the applicant to a temporary "light duty" position is additional evidence of the acknowledgment by the Agency that the applicant could not perform one or more of the essential elements of one's job, and therefore in such recognition, the Agency provided for a temporary light duty assignment.  Acceptance of such an assignment is not a bar to disability retirement, precisely because it is not a "reassignment" to a "vacant" position, as required in the case of Bracey v. OPM.

Sincerely, Robert R. McGill, Esquire