The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration just announced it has fined the Postal Service $287,000 for alleged safety violations at a mail processing facility in Bluefield, W.Va.

According to an OSHA news release:

OSHA initiated an inspection in May in response to a complaint alleging the hazards. Inspectors cited the Postal Service with four willful violations carrying a penalty of $280,000 and one serious violation with a penalty of $7,000.

The willful violations cite the facility’s failure to label electrical cabinets, properly train employees, use safety-related work practices when exposed to energized electrical parts and provide proper electrical protective equipment. OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.

The serious citation was issued for allowing an unauthorized employee to perform inspections. OSHA issues a serious citation when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and the employer knew, or should have known, of the hazard.

OSHA chief David Michaels said:

These citations and sizable fines reflect the Postal Service’s failure to ensure that the proper safety practices were being used by employees working with live electrical parts, leaving them vulnerable to multiple hazards. The Postal Service knew that proper and effective training was needed for the safety of its workers but did not provide it.

This is the second Postal Service facility in West Virginia to be hit with major fines in the last month. In mid-October, OSHA fined a facility in Huntington $212,500 for similar sorts of problems.

UPDATED: I’VE POSTED A COPY OF THE CITATIONS HERE.

As we’ve previously noted:

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed an enterprise-wide complaint against the U.S. Postal Service for electrical work safety violations. The complaint asks the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission to order the Postal Service to correct electrical violations at all its facilities nationwide. This complaint marks the first time OSHA has sought enterprise-wide relief as a remedy.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 11:40 am and is filed under Worker safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.