{"id":1878,"date":"2011-01-12T09:40:26","date_gmt":"2011-01-12T14:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=1878"},"modified":"2011-01-12T09:40:26","modified_gmt":"2011-01-12T14:40:26","slug":"osha-says-usps-fails-to-keep-proper-record-of-injury-and-illness-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2011\/01\/12\/osha-says-usps-fails-to-keep-proper-record-of-injury-and-illness-2\/","title":{"rendered":"OSHA Says USPS Fails to Keep Proper Record of Injury and Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OSHA\"<\/a><\/p>\n

USPS Fails to Keep Proper Record of Injury and Illness, OSHA Finds
\n<\/strong>Problem May be \u2018Pervasive\u2019 – APWU Web News Article<\/p>\n

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) slammed the USPS again for safety violations \u2014 this time for under-recording workplace injuries and illnesses. In recent months, OSHA found 242 instances of recordkeeping violations during inspections of 10 postal facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOSHA believes that under-recording of injuries and illnesses may be a pervasive problem at the USPS,\u201d wrote Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary for OSHA, in a Jan. 4 letter to the Postal Service<\/a> [PDF].<\/p>\n

\u201cThe percentage of the inspected facilities with violations is indicative of a systemic failure by the USPS\u201d in properly maintaining logs of work-related illness and injuries, Michaels wrote.<\/p>\n

In recent months, OSHA received more than 170 worker complaints alleging ergonomic hazards at Processing & Distribution Centers (P&DCs) nationwide. OSHA selected 10 of the facilities for inspection, and \u201cfound numerous problems with the USPS practices regarding OSHA\u2019s injury and illness recordkeeping requirements,\u201d Michaels wrote.<\/p>\n

Inspectors issued the Postal Service 37 citations after finding that the USPS failed to record injuries; the number of lost or restricted days; accurately describe injuries; complete proper OSHA forms; record injuries within seven days, and failed to review injury and illness logs for accuracy.<\/p>\n

The most common violations were failure to record injuries, which was found at six sites, and failure to accurately describe injuries, which occurred at four facilities.<\/p>\n

In response to the findings, OSHA \u201cstrongly suggested\u201d that the Postal Service \u201cdo a thorough evaluation of recordkeeping at all of its postal facilities\u201d to ensure that all work-related illness and injury logs for calendar years 2006 to present have been properly maintained, and to correct any errors. OSHA also recommended that the USPS \u201cevaluate its general recordkeeping policies,\u201d and provide training for employees required to perform recordkeeping duties to ensure practices are accurate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccurate records are one of the key ways to identify and predict accident trends, and to target corrective measures,\u201d said Corey Thompson, the union\u2019s Safety and Health Specialist. \u201cThe problem of improper recordkeeping of workplace injuries and illness is a priority safety issue for the APWU in 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michaels said OSHA will conduct 20 to 30 annual follow-up inspections of USPS facilities selected at random to ensure compliance with recordkeeping requirements. Facilities that fail to do so, or do not correct OSHA logs for the past three years, will be subject to \u201cwillful and repeat citations,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The 10 OSHA inspections were conducted at P&DCs in Chicago, IL; Lehigh Valley, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Mankato, MN; Seattle, WA; Wareham, MA; Madison, WI; Cayce, SC; Orlando, FL, and Providence, RI. The only facilities that had no recordkeeping violations were in Orlando and Providence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

USPS Fails to Keep Proper Record of Injury and Illness, OSHA Finds Problem May be \u2018Pervasive\u2019 – APWU Web News Article The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) slammed the USPS again for safety violations \u2014 this time for under-recording workplace injuries and illnesses. In recent months, OSHA found 242 instances of recordkeeping violations during […]<\/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-1878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878","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=1878"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1881,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}