How to Fill Out PS Form 3970-R: Eligibility, Part I, and Filing

PS Form 3970-R, Request to Receive Donated Leave, is the form a career or transitional USPS employee files to request annual leave donated by coworkers under the Postal Service’s Annual Leave Sharing Program. You fill out Part I with your identifying information and signature, then submit it to your immediate supervisor, who completes Part II and forwards it in a sealed envelope to the Leave Sharing Program (LSP) coordinator at the personnel office. The coordinator handles Part III, establishes your eligibility date, and arranges for the donation notice that goes out to potential donors.

Confirm You Are Eligible Before Filing

Three conditions have to be met before the form does you any good.

You are incapacitated for your available Postal Service duties by a serious personal health condition, including an incapacitating pregnancy, or you need leave to care for a child born to you or placed with you for adoption within the previous 12 months. The child-care reason was added by Management Instruction EL-510-2019-6.¹
You are known or expected to miss at least 40 hours of work beyond what your earned sick leave and annual leave will cover. Those LWOP hours do not have to be consecutive, but they must trace to the qualifying condition.
You submit a completed PS Form 3970-R to your immediate supervisor.

Conditions that could be the subject of a workers’ compensation claim do not qualify.

How to Complete Part I

Part I is the only section you fill in. The rest belongs to your supervisor and the LSP coordinator.

Enter your name in last-first-middle initial order, your Employee Identification Number, and your telephone number with area code. A 2006 revision removed the old Social Security number field and replaced it with the Employee ID, so have that number ready rather than your SSN.² Sign and date the form. Your signature certifies that the information is accurate and that you are asking to participate in the program as a recipient.

The form also asks whether you authorize the release of certain personal information in the donation-request notice that will be posted for coworkers. Read this section before signing. The notice is how potential donors find out you need help, so more detail may bring in more donations, but you decide what appears.

What Your Supervisor Does With It

Your immediate supervisor completes Part II. The supervisor verifies eligibility, signs and dates the form, and enters the date you accumulated, or are expected to accumulate, 40 hours of LWOP tied to the qualifying condition. The documentation then goes into a sealed envelope marked “Restricted” and is forwarded to the LSP coordinator at the personnel office.¹

Management may ask for medical documentation supporting the health condition. The specifics of that documentation stay out of the LSP case file, but expect the request.

What the LSP Coordinator Does

The coordinator date-stamps the form when it arrives, reviews the information, and completes Part III. If something is missing, the coordinator asks you or your supervisor for the additional details, but the original date stamp stands. Your eligibility date is set as either the date of the stamp or the date you actually meet all eligibility requirements, whichever is later.¹

Where to Get PS Form 3970-R

The form is available through USPS internal channels. On the Postal Service PolicyNet site, go to blue.usps.gov, click “References” under “Essential Links,” select “PolicyNet,” and open “Forms.” Printed copies can be ordered from the Material Distribution Center at 800-332-0317, option 2. First-time users have to register for the touch-tone ordering system by calling the same number, choosing option 1, extension 2925, and waiting 48 hours before placing an order.² Your union steward or local personnel office can also hand you a copy.

When to File

File as soon as you know your leave balances will not cover the absence. You do not have to wait until you have burned through your annual leave, sick leave, and the 40 hours of LWOP. You just cannot actually use donated leave until those requirements are met.¹ Filing early preserves your eligibility date and gives the coordinator time to post the donation notice while you still have some paid leave left.

Once eligibility is established, a notice goes out to postal installations in your geographical area, or the jurisdictional area specified in your bargaining unit’s national agreement, inviting donations. The notice carries your LSP case number, information on how donors can obtain PS Form 3970-D, and the return address. If you authorized release of personal information, that appears in the notice. Your union representative is also listed as a source for the donor form.

Coworkers who donate use PS Form 3970-D, not 3970-R. There is no guaranteed amount. How much leave you receive depends on who donates and how much.

Using the Donated Leave

Donated hours can only be used after you exhaust your own earned annual and sick leave. To draw on them, submit PS Form 3971 through the normal attendance process, write “Donated Leave” in the remarks section, and get supervisor approval under standard leave policies.

You can also use donated leave retroactively to replace the 40 hours of LWOP that qualified you in the first place. This is done through your installation’s normal leave-adjustment procedure using PS Form 2240.¹ Converting those hours from unpaid to paid can meaningfully change the paycheck for the period when you first went out.

Unused donated leave carries over from one leave year to the next without limit.³

When Your Eligibility Ends

Eligibility to receive and use donated leave terminates when you separate from the Postal Service for any reason, when you return to your normal work schedule and are no longer affected by the qualifying condition, or when 12 months have passed since the birth or adoption if that was the qualifying reason.¹

The program does not extend automatically. If a new qualifying condition arises later, you file a new PS Form 3970-R and go through eligibility again from the start.

Avoiding Delays

The most common holdup is incomplete documentation. Have your Employee ID handy, be ready to provide medical documentation if asked, and confirm that Part I is fully filled in before you hand the form to your supervisor. File early. Waiting until you are already deep into LWOP shortens the window donors have to respond and leaves paychecks thinner in the meantime.

1
National Association of Letter Carriers. Management Instruction EL-510-2019-6
2
United States Postal Service. Postal Bulletin 22177
3
National Association of Letter Carriers. Management Instruction EL-510-2003-2