U.S. Postal Service in Wisconsin Faces $58K in OSHA Fines

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited the U.S. Postal Service’s Processing and Distribution Facility in Eau Claire for alleged repeat and serious violations of federal workplace safety standards and has proposed $58,500 in penalties.

OSHA conducted a safety and health inspection and found two alleged repeat violations and one serious violation.

The violations included failure to provide powered industrial vehicle refresher training after the operator had been involved in an accident, operated the vehicle in an unsafe manner or was assigned to a different type of truck; and failed to ensure that U.S. Postal Service workers preformed daily examinations of industrial trucks prior to the trucks being placed into service.

A serious violation is one that could cause death or serious physical harm to workers from the condition.

OSHA also cited the Eau Claire facility with three other-than-serious violations for improper occupational injuries record keeping and failing to provide proper driver training.

The U.S. Postal Service has been inspected by OSHA numerous times nationwide, including approximately 136 times since 1981 in the state of Wisconsin.

Source: OSHA, www.osha.gov