{"id":1235,"date":"2010-07-29T18:24:23","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T23:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=1235"},"modified":"2010-07-29T18:24:23","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T23:24:23","slug":"osha-fines-usps-420000-for-violations-at-vermont-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2010\/07\/29\/osha-fines-usps-420000-for-violations-at-vermont-facility\/","title":{"rendered":"OSHA Fines USPS $420,000 For Violations at Vermont Facility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/OSHA.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1236\" title=\"OSHA\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/OSHA-150x150.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>WBZ TV said &#8220;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 &#8220;de-energized,&#8221; and without personal protective equipment or insulated tools, according to OSHA. The agency issued six willful citations, which it defines as those &#8220;committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The union has been concerned about this set of safety hazards for several years &#8211; the danger of electrocution and burns stemming from these problems,&#8221; said Sally Davidow, a spokeswoman for the American Postal Workers Union.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The conditions cited here exposed workers to the swift and potentially deadly hazards of electric shock, arc flashes and arc blasts,&#8221; said Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for OSHA. &#8220;This large fine reflects both the gravity of these hazards and the Postal Service&#8217;s ongoing knowledge of and failure to correct them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The plan provides for electrical risk assessments, training, personal protective equipment, enhanced safe electrical work practices and insulated tools,&#8221; Rizzo said.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Those are national figures; Rizzo said he didn&#8217;t have information specific to the Vermont facility or northern New England.<\/p>\n<p>For complete story visit <a href=\"http:\/\/wbztv.com\/wireapnewsme\/Feds.Safety.violations.2.1831868.html\" target=\"_blank\">WBZ TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8220;An inspection that began Jan. 30 found untrained or unqualified employees routinely performing troubleshooting, voltage [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1238,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions\/1238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}