HAZARDS cited by OSHA.

OSHA fines USPS nearly $500,000 for exposing workers to electrical hazards at two Philly facilities.

OSHA announced that it has cited the US Postal Service for workplace safety violations related to electrical hazards found at two Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, facilities following an investigation conducted as a result of complaints received by the agency about both locations. Proposed penalties total $497,000.

OSHA’s inspections of Philadelphia’s Network Distribution Center (NDC) and the Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) found inadequately trained employees performing work, without proper personal protective equipment, while also exposing employees to live parts, risking electric shock and burn hazards. As a result of these conditions, OSHA cited the NDC with four willful violations, with a proposed penalty of $280,000, and the P&DC with three willful violations, with a penalty of $210,000, and one serious violation, with a penalty of $7,000.

“The Postal Service’s disregard for workplace safety standards has left workers at these facilities exposed to unnecessary dangers including electric shock, electrocution, fires and explosions,” said Al D’Imperio, director of OSHA’s Philadelphia Area Office. The Postal Service has 15 business days from receipt of its citations to comply, meet with the OSHA area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. This inspection was conducted by OSHA’s Philadelphia Area Office.

The Philadelphia violations are the fifth set of citations issued to the Postal Service since April 29, confirmed the American Postal Workers Union. Other safety citations were issued in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; in Bedford Park, Illinois; in Denver, Colorado; and in Providence, Rhode Island. These most recent charges bring the Postal Service’s total OSHA fines to nearly $1.8 million.