Workers exposed to failing concrete at Indianapolis mail processing center

Employer name: U.S. Postal Service, 125 West South Street, Indianapolis, Indiana

Citations issued: June 2, 2016

Investigation findings: A follow-up inspection by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found a U.S. Postal Service sorting facility in Indianapolis failed to adequately address hazards from a crumbling parking structure that was falling on its workers.

In August 2014, USPS presented a plan to OSHA outlining measures intended to protect workers on the mail sorting floor from crumbling concrete from the second-story parking lot. In December 2015, OSHA received a complaint alleging the employer had not corrected the safety hazards adequately. The investigation found:

• Employees unprotected from chunks of concrete debris falling from the ceiling above them as the USPS failed to provide netting or scaffolding, resulting in a willful violation.
• The USPS failed to provide hard hats to employees exposed to overhead falling concrete debris, resulting in a serious violation.

Quote: “Continuing to allow workers to be exposed to the hazards of falling concrete without following through on an actionable plan to eliminate hazards is unacceptable,” said Vanessa Martin, OSHA’s area director in Indianapolis. “The employees of this facility deserve to be protected from injury on the job.”

Proposed Penalties:  $77,000

View Citations here.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s

toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Indianapolis Area Office at (317) 226-7290.