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OSHA has cited a Vermont processing center for safety violations and is seeking $420,000 in fines. USPS has 15 days to respond to the OSHA citations. White River Junction postal employees triggered the probe OSHA said Thursday.
WBZ TV said “An inspection that began Jan. 30 found untrained or unqualified employees routinely performing troubleshooting, voltage tests, and maintenance on mail sorting and canceling machines that had not been “de-energized,” and without personal protective equipment or insulated tools, according to OSHA. The agency issued six willful citations, which it defines as those “committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.”
“The union has been concerned about this set of safety hazards for several years – the danger of electrocution and burns stemming from these problems,” said Sally Davidow, a spokeswoman for the American Postal Workers Union.
“The conditions cited here exposed workers to the swift and potentially deadly hazards of electric shock, arc flashes and arc blasts,” said Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for OSHA. “This large fine reflects both the gravity of these hazards and the Postal Service’s ongoing knowledge of and failure to correct them.”
Tom Rizzo, a spokesman for the Postal Service region that encompasses Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, said the agency began implementing changes in January to mitigate electrical hazards to employees.
“The plan provides for electrical risk assessments, training, personal protective equipment, enhanced safe electrical work practices and insulated tools,” Rizzo said.
The Postal Service has already provided 123,000 hours of training for more than 20,000 maintenance employees and is in the process of distributing more than $2 million in protective safety gear, including safety glasses, face shields, gloves and flame-resistant lab coats.
Those are national figures; Rizzo said he didn’t have information specific to the Vermont facility or northern New England.
For complete story visit WBZ TV.
Whilst the figure that the OHSA are fining for is high, so to was the risk of loss of life, severe injury or lifelong disability of workers who were inadequately trained and/or not provided with the correct equipment.
It’s good to hear that the postal service is now working to reassess and improve their safety procedures, but if they get away without a fine, it’s a worry that companies in similar situations with similar resources won’t also flout the safety regulations and risk the lives and health of their workers.