{"id":33188,"date":"2023-01-26T09:56:33","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T14:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=33188"},"modified":"2023-01-26T09:56:33","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T14:56:33","slug":"department-of-labor-cites-usps-with-16-violations-for-endangering-workers-at-3-tennessee-facilities-proposes350k-in-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2023\/01\/26\/department-of-labor-cites-usps-with-16-violations-for-endangering-workers-at-3-tennessee-facilities-proposes350k-in-penalties\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Labor cites USPS with 16 violations for Endangering Workers at 3 Tennessee Facilities, Proposes$350K in Penalties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NASHVILLE, TN<\/strong> \u2013 1\/25\/23 &#8211; The U.S. Department of Labor has found the U.S. Postal Service exposed workers to struck-by, electrical, crushing, fire and other health hazards at facilities in Columbia, Knoxville and Nashville.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of three inspections, the department&#8217;s\u00a0<a title=\"Occupational Safety and Health Administration - Home\" href=\"https:\/\/www.osha.gov\/\">Occupational Safety and Health Administration<\/a>\u00a0cited the mail carrier for five repeat, four serious and four other-than-serious violations with\u00a0<a title=\"Citation and Notification of Penalty - PDF\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/sites\/dolgov\/files\/OPA\/newsreleases\/2023\/01\/OSHA20232371.pdf\">$350,136 in proposed penalties<\/a>\u00a0to address the safety and health hazards.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, OSHA found the following unsafe conditions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A missing guard\/cover on a mail processing machine exposed workers to an energized electric motor and other energized parts.<\/li>\n<li>Flexible cords and power strips used in place of fixed electrical wiring, and overloaded circuits exposed workers to electrical hazards.<\/li>\n<li>Employees without required training and evaluation needed to operate a powered industrial truck.<\/li>\n<li>Employees not wearing seatbelts as they operated forklifts on the loading dock, which exposed them to crushed-by hazards if the forklift tipped over.<\/li>\n<li>Forklifts lacked working strobe lights and back up alarms, while other forklifts needing repairs remained in service.<\/li>\n<li>Backed up sewers left raw sewage on restroom floors and in work areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>OSHA also issued a written notice to the U.S. Postal Service for having a safety incentive program that awards workers who are accident-free, as these programs can discourage workers from reporting accidents and injuries.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The U.S. Postal Service&#8217;s high operational tempo is not a reason to bypass or ignore long-established safety standards. If anything, it&#8217;s a reason to place greater emphasis on ensuring its workers are protected from recognized hazards and have every opportunity to avoid potential life-altering injuries,&#8221; said OSHA Area Director William Cochran in Nashville, Tennessee. &#8220;These violations are preventable and continuing to operate in this manner, while ignoring safety requirements, is a recipe for disaster.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The three facilities investigated were the Knoxville Processing and Distribution Center, the Music City Annex in Nashville and the Columbia Post Office.<\/p>\n<p>The employer has contested the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/osha495.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-33189 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/osha495-300x170.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/osha495-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/osha495-123x70.jpg 123w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/osha495.jpg 495w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASHVILLE, TN \u2013 1\/25\/23 &#8211; The U.S. Department of Labor has found the U.S. Postal Service exposed workers to struck-by, electrical, crushing, fire and other health hazards at facilities in Columbia, Knoxville and Nashville. As a result of three inspections, the department&#8217;s\u00a0Occupational Safety and Health Administration\u00a0cited the mail carrier for five repeat, four serious and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-usps-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33188","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=33188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33190,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33188\/revisions\/33190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}