Hostile Environment
Postal Worker's Situation Worsening
09/12/2002
by LEONARD SAFFIR - Staff Writer
The Lake Worth Herald Press, Inc.
BOYNTON BEACH [Florida] - Despite help from a congressman, a national legal advocacy firm, an AFL-CIO local union, fellow workers and a boy friend, U. S. Postal Service worker Gena Salazar continues to lose ground in her desperate fight for financial and emotional survival.
Salazar, a 43-year-old clerk in the Boynton Beach post office, suffered a panic attack while at work on May 24 as a result of alleged actions taken against her by supervisor Alex Paes with support from Tom Noone, facility manager, and Richard Armour, postmaster.
Salazar said Paes followed her with a stopwatch and pad of paper recording every move she made, an action that is not permitted under the post office’s union contract.
Salazar said Paes was so close she could hear him breathing down her neck.
“His ( Paes’) conduct towards her (Salazar) was so intimidating and provocative that she had to be removed from the facility via ambulance,” J. R. Pritchett, of Utah Legal Advocates said.
“I believe what is happening to Ms. Salazar is a life-threatening struggle,” Pritchett said.
The action followed nearly a year of harassment by management, according to Salazar.
Hospitalized
Salazar, a single mother of two children, lives in Lake Worth.
She was treated in the Bethesda Memorial Hospital emergency room in May. It was her second emergency trip to a hospital as a result of stressful conditions in the Boynton post office that started in late 2001.
Salazar was treated by psychiatrist Dr. Alejandro Villalobos of Palm Beach Gardens.
Villalobos described Salazar’s condition in a May 29 letter to the post office as, “A stress reaction manifested by anxiety with panic attacks and depression associated with stress at work.”
Villalobos reported at the time Salazar was under his care and should be placed on sick leave.
Salazar Worse
On July 15, Salazar requested advanced sick leave because Dr. Villalobos advised her she was still not mentally prepared to go back into the same hostile environment.
Since then Salazar’s condition has worsened as a result of the post office’s actions. Salazar has been denied advanced sick leave. She has not been paid any money since July 5.
Salazar has had to borrow money and take house-cleaning jobs to pay her mortgage and to buy food. She has been earning less than 10% of her regular post office pay.
On Monday, Dr. Villalobos advised the post office that Salazar should continue on “no work status” until Sept. 25.
Payment of advanced sick leave is left to postal management discretion. It is usually given in cases of an employee’s disability or illness if there is reason to believe the employee will return to duty. Advanced sick leave provisions allow an employee to borrow leave and pay it back upon return to duty.
Requests for advanced sick leave must be supported by medical documentation of the illness.
No Sick Leave
On July 18, Lawrence Glazerman, officer-in-charge of the Boynton post office, wrote Salazar, “The nature of your illness, the duration of your absence and the medical documentation provided do not give me reason to believe you will return to work.”
Legal advocate Pritchett, handling an EEOC (Employee Equal Opportunity Commission) complaint for Salazar, wrote Postmaster Richard Armour Sept. 7:
“As Ms. Salazar’s EEOC representative, I must take exception to Mr. Glazerman’s reasons for denying Ms. Salazar’s request for advanced sick leave.
“First the duration of Ms. Salazar’s illness is directly proportional to the psychological trauma which she received at the hands of one of your supervisors who remains unpunished for his insidious treatment of her.
“Mrs. Salazar’s psychiatrist has not indicated anywhere in the documentation provided to the postal service that is likely that she would not eventually return to duty. Mr. Glazerman is making a medical assessment for which he is not qualified.”
Rep. Mark Foley
Bill Souto, a 25-year veteran of the USPS who works at the Summit Boulevard post office where he worked with Salazar before she was transferred to Boynton Beach, has spent countless hours trying to help his friend.
In a letter to Congressman Mark Foley dated Aug. 15, Souto wrote:
“Gena has used all of her sick leave and annual leave, which would not have been necessary absent the post office’s harassing tactics. She is in danger of losing her house and car.
“It certainly seems clear that the postal service is intent on starving her and her family out.
“It is simply extortion for the postal service to compel Gena to provide a return to duty date, or her request for advanced leave will be denied.
“I really don’t know how much longer she can continue to survive under these circumstances. If she goes back to work before her psychiatrist says that she is ready, she would likely be injured further, Souto said.”
Congressman Foley wrote Salazar on Aug. 20 that he had contacted the USPS in Washington on her behalf.
Marie Robbins, a national advocate for the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, Palm Beach County Local 749, has been conducting an investigation of the charges. She declined to report the status of her investigation.
Workers’ Support
Fifteen concerned co-workers met in July to show support for Salazar. At least three members of the group have received notices of warning and suspension or have been called in for investigative review for alleged non-related violations.
Mark Foreman, a union shop steward, who was a witness to the harassment of Salazar by supervisor Paes, was called in for disciplinary interview.
Foreman has been an outspoken critic of manager Noone.
Salazar’s complaints are against Armour, Noone, and Paes.
The postal workers called Noone, their manager for four years, “evil and must be replaced for the health and safety of themselves and all their colleagues.”
Armour and Noone did not return calls to the newspaper.
The newspapers’ first reported on Salazar’s plight in two successive issues, July 11 and 18.
Armour would not comment in July except to say the post office has very strict rules against harassment in the work place.
Since 1997, while at the Summit post office, Salazar received numerous certificates of appreciation.
Salazar has a degree in accounting from a college in Venezuela. After graduation, she worked as an accountant for the Goodyear Tire Company.
From 1989-92, Salazar worked at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Manalapan as a hostess in its private club.