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Tackling Safety & Health Concerns: A Starter Guide

Article by Cameron Taylor, Maintenance Steward and Website Editor.

Despite their seemingly universal lack of concern or effort, Management has an obligation to address and resolve employee complaints about safety and health. If you’re concerned about something that’s a possible safety or health issue, it’s best to start at the lowest possible step before escalating (unless it’s an immediate threat to health or life), by reporting it to your supervisor and/or manager – either directly or through your steward or safety captain. If it’s not addressed or resolved, file a grievance. If that’s not resolving the situation, it’s getting dragged out too long, or the issue is simply too severe to wait, then you can also consider filing an OSHA complaint. A Health Hazard Evaluation requested through NIOSH can help establish that a safety issue actually exists, which could seriously help getting the issue resolved.

Below, I’ll go through a few different methods of attempting to tackle safety and health concerns in more depth. This is not an all-inclusive guide, but merely meant to help get you started in the right direction.

Through the Grievance Procedure

Article 14.2 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement says:

If an employee believes he/she is being required to work under unsafe conditions, such employees may:

  • (a) notify such employee’s supervisor who will immediately investigate the condition and take corrective action if necessary;
  • (b) notify such employee’s steward, if available, who may discuss the alleged unsafe condition with such employee’s supervisor;
  • (c) file a grievance at Step 2 of the grievance procedure within fourteen (14) days of notifying such employee’s supervisor if no corrective action is taken during the employee’s tour; and/or
  • (d) make a written report to the Union representative from the Local Safety and Health Committee who may discuss the report with such employee’s supervisor.

As the above shows, the employee, their steward, or their safety captain should ideally report the safety and/or health concerns to their supervisor or manager. The best way to do this is to fill out a PS 1767 form (can be acquired from Management, or outside the Citygate union cubicle). The form should be completed by Management by the end of your shift and a copy returned to you. The concern should be evaluated and addressed promptly. If the employee doesn’t feel comfortable discussing the issue with Management, they may request a steward to investigate and proceed on their behalf. The employee can also contact their safety captain, if they have one. Regardless of who contacts Management, if there’s no resolution, a steward may file a grievance over the issue directly to Step 2 (be sure to include and cite the PS 1767 in the grievance file).

Grievances not resolved at Step 2 “may only be appealed to the Local Safety and Health Committee for discussion and decision [within 15 days of the Step 2 decision] or may be appealed directly to arbitration within 21 days after receipt of the Employer’s Step 2 decision.” Art. 14.2.(d). This is somewhat different from the normal grievance procedure, so do be aware of that when filing or appealing. Unfortunately, our Local Safety and Health Committee isn’t taken seriously by Management, but maybe that will start to take it more seriously with the recent OSHA citations.

For the Steward’s grievance and citations, be sure to include the following:

  • CBA Articles 14, 15, 19. JCIM for the same.
  • ELM 8, Safety, Health, and Environment
  • USPS Handbooks:
    • EL-801 (Supervisor’s Safety Handbook)
    • EL-802 (Executives’ and Managers’ Safety and Health Program Transmittal Letter and Compliance Guide)
    • EL-803 (Maintenance Employee’s Guide to Safety)
    • EL-809 (Guidelines for Area/Local Joint Labor-Management Transmittal Letter, Safety and Health Committees)
    • EL-814 (Postal Employee’s Guide to Safety).
  • Any relevant PS 1767s.
  • Any applicable OSHA laws/regulations/citations.
  • Any relevant NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation findings.
  • Any and all statements or interviews from impacted employees, witnesses, management, etc.
Through an OSHA Complaint

If the issue is serious, life-threatening, and/or not being resolved (either quickly or at all) through the grievance process, an OSHA complaint might be the way to go. This can be done a few ways, each with pros and cons, and depending on the type of complaint you’re filing:

For the purposes of this article, we’ll be focusing on “Safety and Health Complaints.” This type of complaint covers any kind of safety/health concern, from blocked aisleways to hazardous chemical spills and everything in between. The best way to file appears to be through OSHA’s Online Complaint Form. The form is fairly self-explanatory, but I’ll walk you through it below.

  • Items 1-9, ask for your employer’s name (USPS) and contact info, as well as your facility’s information.
  • Item 10 asks for the “Hazard Description.” Make sure to provide as much detail as you possibly can, including dates/times/people impacted/witnesses. Honestly, the more information and details the better. This is one of those cases where being brief can actually hurt OSHA’s ability to investigate your complaint.
  • Item 11 asks for “Hazard Location.” Include the facility, but also be sure to narrow which specific area(s) within the facility are where the hazards are located.
  • Item 12 asks whose attention the hazard has been brought to. If you’ve submitted a PS 1767, filed a grievance, and/or informed Management through any other means, definitely checkmark that Management has been notified. The second option, for another Government Agency, is unlikely to be applicable in most circumstances so ignore that.
  • Item 13 is crucial. OSHA takes complaints of current employees most seriously. If you’re both a current employee and a union representative, it’s probably best to just select “Current Employee.” If you’re a retired union representative, you’ll probably want to select “Representative of Employees” instead of “Former Employee.”
  • Item 14 is where you decide whether you want OSHA to keep your identity private or not. It’s probably best to select “Do NOT reveal my name to my Employer.”
  • Items 15-19 are just your personal information, your electronic signature, etc.

Once you’ve finished, press “Send” to submit your complaint. Congratulations, you’ve officially filed an OSHA complaint!

After you’ve submitted your complaint, OSHA will email you within a few business days with a PDF of their initial decision letter. That decision may be that they don’t believe your complaint is a hazard that they cover. It may also be that they’ll reach out to Management to ask about the hazard and/or request them to fix it. If it’s serious enough, OSHA will schedule an on-site investigation into your complaint, where they’ll likely do inspections, interviews, etc.

And remember, it’s illegal for Management to retaliate against anyone for an OSHA complaint, or their involvement with the OSHA investigation. If that happens, file an online OSHA Whistleblower Complaint within 30 days of the instance of retaliation.

Through a Health Hazard Evaluation with NIOSH

If an employee, or an employee representative, has concerns that something is unsafe, unhealthy, etc. but there’s nothing solidly establishing it enough to be resolved through grievance-arbitration or OSHA, a Health Hazard Evaluation can be requested from NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health). APWU has utilized NIOSH for many things, including Health Hazard Evaluations into DBCS ergonomic issues that resulted in the DBCS Operator grievances we know today when there’s only a single clerk operating a DBCS machine.

NIOSH is slower to respond to requests than OSHA, and is primarily geared around conducting health studies and giving recommendations. While the recommendations aren’t binding, they can be used, along with the findings in general, to prove the employee’s, or Union’s, case that something is unsafe and needs addressed. A previously unsuccessful grievance might be able to succeed after NIOSH releases their findings and recommendations. Similarly, OSHA might take up the complaint after NIOSH establishes a safety or health issue.

Unlike an OSHA complaint, three employees must sign off on the request for an HHE. However, just like with an OSHA complaint, it can be done confidentially where NIOSH will not reveal any names to Management, and retaliation for submitting a NIOSH request is illegal and grievable.

After you submit your request, NIOSH will generally reach out to you within 30 days where they’ll do one of the following:

  • Call you to talk about your concerns and send you information and recommendations.
  • Call you to talk about your concerns and begin to set up a visit to your workplace.
  • Send you information about another agency if your request is not within our authority.
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