TSA SF-50 at last!

Yesterday I checked my mailbox and lo and behold...a letter from TSA HQ from back east. It was my long sought after SF-50...a government personnel action form. It looked like any SF-50...but has codes on it I had never seen before regarding my separation. Of course...what the codes meant were not included...so on to Google I went. As it turned out...it was more than I thought they would do. The codes meant I had been separated for granted Leave Without Pay (LWOP) for a work incurred injury or illness expected to last over 80 days. I could breathe a little easier...knowing that I was not separated for conduct reasons...as they initially wanted to do. Conduct was never a problem...my work injury was. They apparently saw the error of that decision and did what they should have done anyway...cite my separation for a long term work related injury.

Next however...I noted some interesting dates on the SF-50. At the bottom the official approval was dated May 10, 2005...yet at the top...the effective date of the action was June 22, 2003! What!!!!! I never even got my letter terminating me until January 2005. I took a quick look at some OPM regulations and it seems like they used the LWOP time I was not at work to subtract from my service time. Apparently...using their schedule...I was only creditied my time with TSA to about 8 months. That's weird...since I was hired on November 11, 2002 and received my discharge on January 10, 2005. For the times I was on LWOP...almost all of it was under work restrictions due to my injury and the agency would not place me in a position I could perform for more than 2 weeks at a time. Their were too many injured people and they did not have enough jobs for everyone. Typically...you would work 2 weeks light duty and then get sent home for the next month...sometimes 2 months.
I guess it was not enough to punish us for injuries they caused by keeping us at home for weeks and months at a time with no income. But...might as well get screwed on creditable time in service too.

Looks like I have a lot more work to do on this case. Sigh.........