A Postal Service letter carrier alleges she was sent home without pay for weeks while coworkers accused of worse conduct kept working.
The carrier, who works at an Alabama post office, sued the Postmaster General and the United States Postal Service in federal court on June 29, 2026. She filed after exhausting the agency’s internal equal employment opportunity process, and she is representing herself.
The case centers on one decision. On July 16, 2024, she was placed on what the Postal Service calls an “Emergency Placement” – a tool that lets a manager send an employee home without pay in narrow circumstances, including when the employee “may be injurious to self or others.” According to the complaint, she was kept off work for about 29 days and returned on August 26, 2024 after a grievance was resolved. Payroll records later restored the pay tied to that period.
The carrier alleges the placement rested on “inaccurate and exaggerated allegations.” In her sworn EEO statement, she says the dispute began when she told a manager she could not cover both her own route and another carrier’s bypassed mail within her eight-hour work restriction. She alleges the manager then accused her of becoming physically aggressive. She denies threatening or touching anyone.
Her filing acknowledges that the manager gave a conflicting account to the agency, describing the carrier as having behaved aggressively, and says the placement followed both that account and an alleged refusal to follow instructions. The complaint disputes that version and the witness statements behind it.
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