[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 4, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12808-12810]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-04390]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Office of Workers' Compensation Programs


Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on 
the PEER Initiative: Protecting Employees, Enabling Reemployment

SUMMARY: The Office of Management and Budget has directed the Secretary 
of Labor to publish a memorandum on the PEER Initiative in the Federal 
Register, as part of the President's Management Agenda--Modernizing 
Government for the 21st Century and the President's Initiative to Stop 
Opioid Abuse and Reduce Drug Supply and Demand. Federal agencies and 
the United States Postal Service are expected to improve or maintain 
performance in seven areas related to work-related injuries.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Each year, federal civilian employees 
sustain work-related injuries and illnesses. In 2018, federal workers 
filed almost 107,000 new claims and received approximately $3 billion 
in workers' compensation payments. Many of these work-related injuries 
and illnesses are preventable, and executive departments and agencies 
can and should do more to improve workplace safety and health, improve 
efficiencies, reduce the financial burden of injury on taxpayers, and 
relieve unnecessary suffering by workers and their families.
    Therefore, the Protecting Employees, Enabling Reemployment (PEER) 
Initiative is being created to set forth goals to achieve these 
important objectives and supports the President's Management Agenda--
Modernizing Government for the 21 Century and the President's 
Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse and Reduce Drug Supply and Demand. 
Federal agencies and the United States Postal Service are expected to 
improve or maintain performance in seven areas:
    1. Reducing total injury and illness case rates;
    2. reducing lost-time injury and illness case rates;
    3. increasing the timely filing rate for workers' compensation 
claims;
    4. increasing the timely filing rate for wage-loss claims;
    5. increasing the rate of return-to-work outcomes during the 
initial 45 day post-injury period for traumatic injury cases;
    6. improving the rate at which employees return to work in cases of 
moderate to severe injury or illness; and
    7. implementing and fully using the Department of Labor's 
electronic filing system.
    Goals one through six measure reductions in workplace injuries, 
reductions in time off work because of injuries, improvements in 
return-to-work, and improving the rate of timely filed claims, all of 
which help relieve unnecessary suffering by workers and reduce the 
financial burden of injury on taxpayers. The seventh goal will 
standardize the claims process. It will also aid in direct and 
immediate communication with an injured employee, facilitating prompt 
treatment and providing critical opioid awareness and pain education.
    Executive departments and agencies shall coordinate with the 
Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration and 
Office of Workers' Compensation Programs to develop strategies aimed at 
achieving performance targets in each category. The Secretary of Labor 
shall lead the initiative by measuring both government-wide and agency-
level performance. Each executive department and agency shall bear its 
own costs for participating in the PEER Initiative. Nothing in this 
memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect the 
authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the 
head thereof. This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create 
any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by law or 
in equity by any party against the United States; its departments, 
agencies, or entities; its officers, employees, or agents; or any other 
person.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 26th day of February, 2020.
Julia K. Hearthway,
Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs.
BILLING CODE 4510-24-P

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[FR Doc. 2020-04390 Filed 3-3-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4510-24-C