The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has said that under-recording of injuries and illnesses may be a pervasive problem at the Postal Service.
Following a review of 170 worker complaints alleging ergonomic hazards at postal processing and distribution centers, OSHA said it found numerous problems with USPS practices regarding injury and illness recordkeeping requirements.
Through inspections at 10 facilities it issued 37 citations encompassing 242 instances of recordkeeping violations, it said in a January 4 letter to the USPS Office of Safety and Environmental Performance Management.
"The percentage of the inspected facilities with violations is indicative of a systemic failure by the USPS in properly maintaining the OSHA Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses," the letter said.
OSHA called on the Postal Service to evaluate recordkeeping practices and to review records from 2006 to present to ensure logs have been properly maintained and to correct any errors that are found.
