Postal Service takes on OSHA in ergonomics battle

The U.S. Postal Service has opened a new front in the years-long battle over a proposal by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to stiffen ergonomics protections for American workers.

In recent months, Postal Service officials have questioned OSHA's proposal and the agency's estimates of its affect on the economy. Last week, OSHA acknowledged that it neglected to include Postal Service employees, along with certain state and local government workers and railroad employees, in an economic impact statement on the proposed ergonomics standards released in November 1999. The statement concluded the new rules would cost businesses $4.2 billion.

The proposed ergonomics rules, which have been backed by labor unions and the Clinton administration, are designed to prevent job-related injuries. But many businesses have called the proposal overbroad and argued that it should be backed by better scientific evidence.

OSHA says the postal, state and local and railroad sectors could face costs of approximately $420 million. The agency has announced it will hold an informal public hearing about the three sectors on July 7. Public comments are due no later than June 22, the agency said. "It was an oversight on our part. We admit it," an OSHA spokesperson told GovExec.com. "But there will be no harm from it. The new information will be taken into account well before anything is made final."

That acknowledgement aside, critics seized on the delay as evidence that OSHA is cutting corners in its attempt to rewrite ergonomics policy before the November elections. Jon Eisen, director of government relations for Food Distributors International, a leading critic of the ergonomics proposal, noted that OSHA had been notified of the Postal Service's concerns about the matter as long ago as last Dec. 22.

On that date, Postmaster General William Henderson wrote a letter to OSHA chief Charles N. Jeffress, citing the proposal's potential for "significant and pervasive operational and financial impact on the Postal Service and its employees." On March 2, the Postal Service formally filed comments on the proposed rule, saying it was "dismayed" that the economic impact had not yet been calculated.

Observers noted that OSHA lacks long-term injury and economic data on the Postal Service because USPS was only brought under OSHA's umbrella in 1999. Still, Eisen said, ignoring 900,000 postal workers at 34,000 facilities--not to mention 8.7 million state and local government employees--was a major oversight. "Clearly this agency is trying to get the job done by the end of the year while ignoring the largest single materials-handling operation in the country," he said.

While business leaders have not yet invited Postal Service managers to join its anti-ergonomics coalition, Eisen said he appreciated the Postal Service's strong comments against the proposal and suggested there might be an opening for cooperation between the two camps.

Among other things, the Postal Service noted in its March 2 comments that "the requirements of the proposed standard are so vague and indefinite as to elude reasonable understanding. Stated simply, postal managers are having difficulty evaluating how the standard would affect postal operations because they cannot understand the meaning of its key terms."

But supporters of the ergonomics proposal--including the American Postal Workers Union, the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Postal Mailhandlers Union--say the latest spate of criticism is not a slam-dunk for the opponents. Union officials say they're happy to play by the new rules of analysis, because including the other three sectors in the calculations stands to help their case too.

"It's true that the analysis doesn't include cost, which is industry's issue, but it also doesn't include injuries, which are enormous," said Corey Thompson, health and safety specialist at the American Postal Workers Union. "Injuries are something that I'd love to see them include, because I do not believe the cost of correcting ergonomics problems even comes close to the injuries now being caused."

Indeed, OSHA suggested this week that the new regulations could prevent 57,000 injuries in the three sectors--for a savings of $1 billion, according to the agency.