FY2016 Performance Report – OSHA requirements are designed to protect Postal Service and contract employees from safety and health hazards in the workplace. All private and public sector employers are subject to OSHA regulations; however, the Postal Service is the only independent federal establishment that can be assessed penalties and fines for noncompliance. The Postal Service measured OSHA safety performance on two levels. The first was by establishing a target injury and illness frequency rate and the second was by establishing performance improvements over the prior year. In FY2016, the OSHA I&I frequency rate for the Postal Service as reported to NPA was 6.25 — nearly an 9 percent decrease over the revised actual rate reported for FY2015. The FY2015 performance reported as of September 30, 2015, was 6.55 which was later restated to 6.85 due to employee claims filed after the close of the fiscal year. Although we did not meet our NPA target in FY2016, the Postal Service continued to reduce accidents and improve performance.
The decrease in the OSHA I&I rate, year over year, was due primarily to a comprehensive training and communication effort aimed at all employees with a focus on new, at-risk employees. In FY2016, our communication and training campaigns addressed the most frequent hazards of the workplace, such as dog bites, extreme heat, distracted driving, proper lifting and reaching and providing a focus on the importance of leadership in maintaining a culture of safety. In addition, we implemented a new program designed to focus on our most at risk employees. This program (CARE — Counseling at Risk Employees) created an open dialogue between employees and their supervisors designed to address safety concerns or unsafe behaviors. A safety statistical dashboard continued to provide targeted data to our field leadership that enabled them to quickly identify the top causes of accidents at a facility level. This data provided direction for creating a tailored safety program.
FY2017 Performance Plan – The Postal Service will add additional focus on prevention strategies and a more proactive approach to employee safety. This focus will be on total accidents, regardless of severity or OSHA record-keeping requirements, and will place additional emphasis on employees considered to be at higher risk for accidents. Our safety initiatives for the next year will assist the field in establishing effective accident reduction plans, enlisting the cooperation and support of our employee partners and taking steps to address the increase in motor vehicle accidents through a redesigned driver training program. We’ll also continue programs to acknowledge leaders who demonstrate exceptional commitment to creating a safe work environment. The OSHA I&I rates measurement will be replaced by Total Accidents Rate in FY2017. This indicator is a rate established by taking the total count of all accidents per exposure hour and the year-to-date total accidents compared to SPLY. (See U.S. Postal Service FY2016 Results and FY2017 Targets for Corporate-wide Goals for FY2017 targets.)
