When federal regulators last week cited the U.S. Postal Service facility on Corliss Street in Providence for jeopardizing workers’ safety, the action represented the tip of the iceberg, the national postal workers’ union said on Monday.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last Thursday issued a series of citations which, taken together, essentially accuse the Postal Service of running a dangerous work place.
The inspectors found untrained or unqualified workers performing tests on live electrical equipment — without personal protective equipment, adequate training, safety-related work practices or warning signs.
The regulators proposed fines totaling more than $558,000.
In response, the U.S. Postal Service, Southeast New England District, said in a statement Monday that it “places the safety and well-being of its employees as a top priority. We will review OSHA’s concerns and make necessary adjustments to continue to ensure a safe working environment for our employees.”
But the American Postal Workers Union said Monday that the safety problems cited by federal regulators are not limited to Providence; they are nationwide — and they are not new.
The union has been talking with the Postal Service since 2007 about the problems. The Postal Service even entered into an agreement to fix the problems, but then “blatantly ignored” the agreements and the related problems, said union spokeswoman Sally Davidow.
“This is a national problem,” she said. The Providence facility is the first where federal inspections were completed and citations issued, she said. Union Local 387 “really took the bull by the horns,” she said.
Davidow predicted that citations will be issued and fines proposed in other areas of the country for similar issues.
On the national union’s Web site Monday, Greg Bell, the union’s industrial relations director, said, “The Providence local is the first to generate citations, but many others are in the pipeline.”
David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, said last week, “The Postal Service ignored long-established safety standards and knowingly put its workers in harm’s way.”
The fines “reflect the severity and ongoing nature of these hazards,” he said in a statement issued Friday.
At the Corliss Street site, workers were exposed “to the serious and potentially fatal hazards of shock, electrocution and arc-flash. That is unacceptable, and needlessly placed the health of these workers at risk,” Michaels said.
The safety issues are not limited to the processing and delivery center in Providence, regulators said.
For example, at postal facilities throughout Rhode Island, field-operation mechanics performed troubleshooting work on electrical equipment — without required protection from the hazard of shock and electrical arc blasts, according to the federal citation.
Regulators wound up proposing $530,000 in fines for eight “willful” citations — in other words, for violations committed “with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health,” according to OSHA.
Regulators also proposed $28,000 in fines related to four “serious” citations — the sort that are issued “when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from hazards about which an employer knew or should have known,” OSHA said.
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