[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 83 (Friday, April 29, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25724-25725]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-10034]


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RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

    Summary: In accordance with the requirement of Section 3506 
(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 which provides 
opportunity for public comment on new or revised data collections, the 
Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) will publish periodic summaries of 
proposed data collections.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed information 
collection is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information has practical utility; 
(b) the accuracy of the RRB's estimate of the burden of the collection 
of the information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize 
the burden related to the collection of information on respondents, 
including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology.
    Title and purpose of information collection: Job Information 
Report, OMB 3220-0193. The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) occupational 
disability standards allow the RRB to request job information from 
railroad employers to determine an applicant's eligibility for an 
occupational disability.
    To determine an occupational disability, the RRB must obtain the 
employee's work history and establish if the employee is precluded from 
performing his or her regular railroad occupation. This is accomplished 
by comparing the restrictions caused by the impairment(s) against the 
employee's ability to perform his or her job duties.
    To collect the information needed to determine the effect of a 
disability on an

[[Page 25725]]

employee applicant's ability to work, the RRB utilizes Form G-251, 
Vocational Report (OMB 3220-0141) which is completed by the applicant. 
When an employee files an application for an occupational disability, 
the RRB currently releases either Form G-251a, Employer Job 
Information, along with a generic position description for their 
current railroad job or Form G-251b, Employer Job Information, (when no 
generic position description is available) to their employer requesting 
pertinent job duty information. The employer is given thirty days from 
the date the forms are released to respond. If the job information is 
received timely, it is compared to the job information provided by the 
employee on the G-251, reconciled (if needed), and then used to compare 
to the restrictions caused by the medical impairment. If the 
restrictions prohibit the performance of the regular railroad 
occupation, the claimant is found occupationally disabled. Completion 
of Form G-251a and G-251b is voluntary.
    Extensive changes are proposed to the current information 
collection process in support of the RRB's Disability Program 
Improvement Project to enhance/improve disability case processing and 
overall program integrity as recommended by the RRB's Office of 
Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office.
    The RRB proposes to obsolete current Forms G-251a and G-251b, which 
request a narrative response and replace them with the implementation 
of a new version of Form G-251a, which will utilize a combined 
narrative/structured question and answer format.
    Proposed Form G-251a will request railroad employers to provide 
information regarding whether the employee has been medically 
disqualified from their railroad occupation; a summary of the 
employee's duties; the machinery, tools and equipment used by the 
employee; the environmental conditions under which the employee 
performs their duties; all sensory requirements (vision, hearing, 
speech) needed to perform the employee's duties; the physical actions 
and amount of time (frequency) allotted for those actions that may be 
required by the employee to perform their duties during a typical work 
day; any permanent working accommodations an employer may have made due 
to the employee's disability; as well as any other relevant information 
they may choose to include. Completion is voluntary.

                                      Estimate of Annual Respondent Burden
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                                                                    Annual
                           Form No.                               responses      Time (minutes)   Burden (hours)
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G-251a.......................................................             500               60              500
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    Additional Information or Comments: To request more information or 
to obtain a copy of the information collection justification, forms, 
and/or supporting material, contact Dana Hickman at (312) 751-4981 or 
[email protected]. Comments regarding the information collection 
should be addressed to Charles Mierzwa, Railroad Retirement Board, 844 
North Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611-1275 or emailed to 
[email protected]. Written comments should be received within 60 
days of this notice.

Charles Mierzwa,
Chief of Information Resources Management.
[FR Doc. 2016-10034 Filed 4-28-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7905-01-P