Background

The Safety and Health Program is intended to provide guidance through effective training to support and sustain the U.S. Postal Service’s work environment. Industrial accidents involve personal injuries as well as property damage that can include motor vehicle damage under certain conditions. Nationwide, most industrial accidents involved mail carriers assigned to retail and delivery facilities from fiscal years 2017 to 2021.

What We Did

Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of the Postal Service’s Safety and Health Program training applicable to industrial accidents, the use of Accident Reduction Plans, and efforts to promote safety awareness. For this audit, we judgmentally selected 12 retail and delivery facilities to conduct site visits.

What We Found

Management at the 12 visited facilities did not always provide employees with consistent and relevant safety and health training and some employees did not complete required refresher training after an industrial accident. Additionally, management did not always present safety talks to employees properly or adequately document and maintain records of completed safety talks; did not always ensure employees were trained in first-aid, or service safety equipment such as fire extinguishers and first-aid kits effectively; ensure employees wore proper footwear; and display visual media intended to promote safety awareness.

Recommendations

We recommended management (1) provide training on the Safety and Health Management Tool for facility level action planning activity and for the Accident Reduction Plans; (2) reiterate policies and procedures on presenting and documenting safety talks to applicable facility level management; (3) revise applicable guidance to define the purpose and intent of safety talks and communicate revised guidance to employees; (4) provide formal training on proper maintenance of fire extinguishers and first‑aid kits; and implement a process to verify the inspection of fire extinguishers and that first-aid supplies are readily available; (5) provide formal training to responsible personnel on administrating first-aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation; (6) provide formal training on approved footwear; (7) dispose of obsolete items and prevent other items from obscuring safety awareness media displays.