OSHA: DBCS Machines Pose Risk to Workers’ Health
Management ‘Lacks Understanding’ of Risks, Agency Concludes
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has hit the Postal Service with another unwelcome finding: Delivery Bar Code Sorter machines pose a direct risk to workers’ health, and there is a “general lack of understanding about the hazards and injuries” associated with the equipment among postal managers.
In a Jan. 4 letter to the Postmaster General, OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels said the agency had received more than 170 complaints alleging that “injuries occurred due to worker exposure to ergonomic stressors” associated with DBCS operation at Processing and Distribution Centers nationwide. The complaints were submitted by APWU locals in response to a request from the national union after the USPS rebuffed union attempts to correct — or even discuss — DBCS hazards.
In response to the complaints, OSHA selected nine sites for inspection as a representative sample. The inspections and ergonomic evaluation “identified generally consistent risk factors at most inspected sites,” the majority of which resulted from the repetitive motions required to operate the DBCS, Michaels wrote.
Hazards included repeated bending and twisting; forceful gripping; lifting heavy weight; shoulder exertions; extended reaches, and forceful pulling and pushing. Other risks included contact trauma, working in awkward postures, and generalized body fatigue.
“OSHA’s findings are an important step toward protecting the safety of APWU members,” said Executive Vice President Greg Bell. “Our members have known about the dangers of working on DBCS machines based on their first-hand experience. I am hopeful that OSHA’s involvement will encourage the Postal Service to correct the problems.”
Ignorance of Risks
According to OSHA’s evaluation, “almost all managers assigned to Tour 1 and 3 indicated ignorance of any risks associated with performing DBCS tasks. This severely limits the opportunity for improvement in the workplace since there isn’t a basic knowledge of the hazards or even the process,” OSHA reported. “Additionally, many of the decision making managers work Tour 2 while almost all production work is done on Tour 1 and 3.
“It will be very difficult to address problems when management at all levels, especially safety personnel, work a significant portion of the time on the shifts where the majority of the work is not performed.”
OSHA also reported that supervisors have ignored injury complaints; encouraged clerks to “work through” the pain, or have discouraged the reporting of injuries. “This fosters a perceived ‘lack of caring’ about the worker,” the agency reported.
OSHA conducted inspections at P&DCs in Seattle, WA; Orlando, FL; Madison, WI; West Columbia, SC; Pittsburgh, PA; Providence, RI; Mankato, MN; Wareham, MA, and Chicago, IL.
“Not all risk factors were identified at every facility at the time of our visit,” Michaels noted, “but the underlying potential seemed to be present at all sites because of the similarity of equipment and job tasks.”
OSHA noted that it would provide a copy of the report to each site for which the agency received a complaint regarding DBCS operations, as well as a detailed, site-specific Ergonomic Hazard Alert Letter (EHAL). The report includes guidelines to aid in eliminating or reducing the risks present in the Feeder and Sweeper tasks, Michaels wrote. “We strongly suggest you utilize the information provided in the technical report and the P&DC site specific EHALs to aid in eliminating or reducing the risks present in the Feeder and Sweeper tasks.”
The DBCS report was the second dose of bad news the USPS received from OSHA on Jan. 4. The agency also issued the Postal Service 37 citations that day for under-recording workplace injuries and illnesses. In recent months, inspections revealed 242 instances of recordkeeping violations at 10 postal facilities.
USPS bars NIOSH from returning to the Denver P & DC?
Editorial by Loyd Reeder
Postal employees in Denver requested NIOSH to investigate the flat mail sorting machines in Denver and NIOSH initiated an investigation in April, 2009. NIOSH is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a federal agency which is part of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Department of Health and Human Services. It is widely considered to be the very best occupational health expertise in the country.
Denver FSM 100 flat sorting machine workers have recently had an extremely high rate of injuries. The machines are poorly designed and ergonomically unsafe. There has been severe understaffing of the machines causing stress and overwork. Employees are pushed to work too fast. Machines are set to overload mail containers, causing excessive strain on workers. Repetitive motion injuries are prevalent due to doing the same tasks thousands of times each day. Workers were not supplied sharp cutting knives daily, causing excessive hand and wrist strain. Injured workers are harassed. There is a culture of intimidation. Workers have been required to work involuntary overtime. The flats sorting unit has less than 8% of the building’s workers but the USPS reported that these flats machine workers had nearly half (47%) of all Musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) injuries in the two-thousand-employee facility.
125 Denver flats workers asked NIOSH to come to the facility to study the situation and suggest changes. Two NIOSH professionals came in early April to evaluate the situation. They interviewed dozens of employees and made video tapes of workers working at the various tasks on the flats sorting machines. The US Postal Service brought in over a dozen of its own safety, health, maintenance, specialists and managers from the local, area, and national levels for the NIOSH investigation. At the end of the visit, the NIOSH investigators gave some preliminary conclusions, said they may return for a second visit, and would issue a final report in one to two years.
In the summer, NIOSH contacted a lead representative of the workers who had originally asked NIOSH to come to the facility. The NIOSH investigators wanted to return to the Denver facility and bring with them an industrial psychologist who wanted to do a job satisfaction survey of the workers. The worker representative gave permission for this project. NIOSH also contacted the local union representative for the mail handler craft who also gave permission for this visit. NIOSH sought permission for the survey from the local safety officer of the USPS in Denver. There has been a long wait for a reply from the USPS management.
In September NIOSH informed the workers that the USPS Western Area Safety Manager Karen Keuter, is “opting not to participate in the survey that we had suggested.” So much for all of the USPS claims that it wants to hear the “voice of the employee”. The USPS spends millions of dollars for its own employee surveys but refuses to let an independent federal agency do its own survey. What is the Postal Service trying to hide?
Union Battles USPS Over Ergonomic Hazards
According to Greg Bell, APWU Director Industrial Relations
Locally Filed Osha Complaints and a National Unfair Labor Practice Charge are among the actions taken by the APWU in our ongoing battle with the Postal Service over ergonomic hazards on the Delivery Bar Code Sorter (DBCS). In a March 25, 2009, letter to local presidents [PDF], the national union urged locals to file individual complaints with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) for each facility that has a DBCS within the installation
In addition, we filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Dec. 22, 2008, and an amended charge on March 9, 2009, protesting the Postal Service’s refusal to meet and bargain in good faith about ergonomic issues revealed in an OSHA report.We also protested the Postal Service’s failure to provide information that we repeatedly have requested.
In late October 2007, OSHA conducted an assessment of the DBCS operations at the Denver P&DC. OSHA’s review documented that ergonomic risks associated with the DBCS operations are still present, and that some of the findings are similar to the findings of two prior National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Health Hazard Evaluations.
Despite the OSHA reports, the Postal Service has refused every attempt by the APWU to discuss the hazards, and continues to willfully expose postal employees to risks associated with the operation of the DBCS.
In addition to ignoring OSHA and NIOSH reports, the Postal Service ignores its own handbooks, manuals, and training programs, as well as the DBCS manufacturer’s manuals for the safe and healthful operation of the equipment. The Postal Service insists that it is making progress in reducing injuries, and that the DBCS is not a cause of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD).
OSHA and NIOSH, on the other hand, have documented that employees are exposed to hazards and are at risk for injuries due to improper equipment installation, including foot-print allocation; support equipment placement and organization; improper allocation of heavy volumes of mail to higher-risk sorting bins; ergonomically unsound loading- and sweeping-procedures; and are subject to various administrative deficiencies such as inadequate work-rest cycles/rotation; insufficient training (both initial and refresher), and questionable equipment-maintenance practices.
On May 1, 2009, the NLRB issued a formal Complaint and Notice of Hearing for the Postal Service’s continued failure and refusal to provide the union with requested documents pertaining to the DBCS-7, the latest version of the machine, as well as information regarding internal reviews of OSHA’s assessment of the DBCS.
In addition to asking the Board to force the Postal Service to provide the requested documentation, the union sought injunctive relief that would require the USPS to meet to discuss these ergonomic issues. The NLRB Regional Director agreed and was prepared to go to court to force the Postal Service to meet. Faced with the threat of an injunction, the Postal Service backed down.
Since then, the Postal Service has met once, but the NRLB Regional Director issued a complaint, nonetheless, because of the “unreasonable delay” in giving the union relevant information. The Regional Director has scheduled a hearing on July 20, 2009, on the allegations in the complaint.
In the meantime, any local with a DBCS that has not yet filed an OSHA complaint should do so as soon as possible. The form necessary for filing a complaint, as well as a packet of information that must be submitted with it, is available on the Industrial Relations pages at http://www.apwu.org/.
Related link: PMG Potter Responds To Inquiry Sent By Lawmaker Regarding DBCS Machines