Vehicle Maintenance Facility, Scranton Processing and Distribution Facility (P&DF), Glenns Falls Post Office, and Baton Rouge P&DC. OSHA site evaluation teams have recommended the Northern Hub and Spoke and Hickory P&DF, Montgomery P&DC and Rochester P&DC for entry into the VPP, pending approval by the assistant secretary of labor. Three additional facilities have submitted applications to OSHA and are pending evaluations.

     Elements of the programs include management leadership and employee participation, worksite analysis, hazard prevention and control, and safety and health training. The elements complement the Postal Service Safety and Health Program Evaluation Guide (PEG) and facility inspection programs. OSHA has accepted the PEG as an excellent tool to meet the requirements of the VPP.

     The VPP has positive implications for the Postal Service. To achieve Star status, an OSHA designation, facilities must demonstrate exemplary safety and health programs and meaningful employee participation. Meeting these criteria and the required continuous improvement will drive ongoing breakthrough illness and injury performance, resulting in reduced workers' compensation costs.

     The Postal Service, APWU, National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU), and OSHA have signed a landmark Ergonomic Strategic Partnership to work together to reduce employee musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and injuries at major Postal Service mail processing facilities. This historic, groundbreaking agreement is one of the first of its kind in both the public and private sectors in which labor and management will work together to take proactive steps to prevent injuries. Employee driven teams have identified and corrected numerous ergonomic risk factors in their work units, and the Postal Service is already experiencing impressive results. The first ten facilities have decreased

their OSHA Recordable MSD rate per 100 employees by almost double the national decrease.

     Critical to the success of the Transformation Plan's Performance-Based Culture Strategy 10 is a reduction in the rate of increase in workers' compensation costs. MSDs associated with ergonomic risk factors account for about 40 percent of injuries and illnesses among postal employees. The Ergonomic Risk Reduction Process (ERRP) office was established within the ERM function in late 2002 to identify and control these ergonomic risk factors at postal facilities.

     Recognizing the effect of MSDs on the workforce, the Postal Service also initiated an Ergonomic Strategic Partnership (ESP) to identify and control ergonomic risk factors. The members of the partnership are the Postal Service, the NPMHU, the APWU, and OSHA. This historic partnership agreement was signed April 4, 2003. The partnership's goal is to encourage and assist the Postal Service in the reduction of injuries and ergonomic related hazards.

     Specifically, the ESP process is designed to accomplish the following goals at participating Postal Service worksites:

• Improve the safety and health environment so that OSHA, the Postal Service, NPMHU, and APWU can work together to reduce MSDs.
• Identify tasks and conditions where MSD incidents occur and develop and implement ergonomic control processes to reduce or eliminate MSD incidents.
• Train local Postal Service managers, supervisors, NPMHU and APWU representatives, and the local Joint Labor-Management Safety and Health Committees to ensure understanding of ergonomic risks and control processes.
• Reduce the number of MSD related incidents, thereby reducing the number of days away from work for both lost workday and restricted duty cases associated with MSD incidents.