The Painted Skies of Your Dark Eyes

The painted skies of your dark eyes...of those whose love betrayed thee. Whence tonight I feel their sight...of burning hate inside me.

I look beyond all that had gone wrong...to see your tears of sorrow.
This summer comes from years of past...still must I wait till tomorrow.

Of these years that come and go...like the seasons of bleak winter snow. To know down deep inside my soul...the painted skies of your dark eyes...are the things I've loved about you.

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.........

Will Miracles Never Cease...FLSA Payments This Week!!!!!!!!!!

Here is something that I did not think would happen in the next 20 years. Unbelievably...there was a breaking news announcement on the AFGE (Ameican Federation of Government Employees) web site. Dated June 9th...the announcement proudly stated that finally...finally...finally...the government was going to pay out former INS employees all the overtime they are entitled to. All payments are supposed to go out by June 15th...yes...this year. According to the press release...20 million dollars are going out to pay old claimants. About 8,600 former INS employees are effected by this. Yes...I am one of those 8,600 employees. How much will we each get...it does not say...though I would imagine those employees who were employed longest under covered dates would get the most. Some people should get close to 20k. I won't get near that amount. Alma should do fine though...as she was employed during most of the period covered as an inspector. Good for her!!!!! And good for all the other former INS employees who had to wait 11 years to get their money!!!!

This week should be very interesting. I have a friend who worked the whole time and did plenty of overtime. He should be at the top end of the scale. He still works for DHS/CIS. Yes indeed...a very interesting week. I sure hope Alma is as happy as I am about this. I am sure she is. No doubt there will be plenty of celebrating among former INS employees this week