Postal
We're proud of our safety record
(4 July, 2008): In their recent response to the union regarding the safety concerns of employees working at Australia Post's Underwood Mail Facility, management made a number of incredible statements. Here's a sample:
"... our investigations indicate that the allegations contained in these emails are all anonymous and our investigations indicate that the allegations contained in these emails are without substance and/or related to matters already dealt with."
- Peter Rogan, National Human Resources Manager, Mail and Networks Division, Australia Post (20 June, 2008). Our emphasis provided.
All the matters were dealt with?
Really? Let's test the claim.
Let's see how Australia Post deals with safety claims when they are raised by local staff.
Underwood employees raised their concerns about the lack of training provided to help manage powder incidents.
They raised this through the local safety committee - the one that Post has recently referred all the union's latest concerns to.
Want to know how many times the issue of safety training for powder incidents was raised with management?
We've compiled a list for you - it details when the matter was raised, where the item was minuted in the discussions and the response from management:
1 August, 2007: Item 13 UMC will run trial powder scare in New Year
13 September 2007: Item 16 Possibility of running drills on Powder incident.
11 October, 2007: Item 09 Powder incident trial to be run at Underwood
14 November, 2007: Item 07 Powder incident trial to be run at Underwood
14 February, 2008: Item 06 Powder incident trial to be run at Underwood
13 March, 2008: Item 03 Powder incident trial to be run at Underwood
10 April, 2008: Item 03 Powder incident trial to be run at Underwood
12 June, 2008: Item 03 Powder incident trial to be run at Underwood
The matter was raised eight times.
Eight times staff were told the training was coming. The training never took place.
At 9pm, 25 June, 2008 - there was another powder incident at the site.
How did Post manage the incident? Inquiries about the management of the response reveal the following:
- The air conditioning unit was not turned off.
- The automatic door which is very close to the contaminated area was allowed to open and close with the traffic around the CFC’s.
- The other CFC machine was kept running for a period of time. It was reported to me the time was around the 10 to 15 minutes before they were told to go.
- Staff within a ten metre range were still performing their duties as normal and were not informed of the nature of the spill.
- Although a pregnant woman was removed from Manual Sort and that was from advice from the Fire Brigade.
- The building was not evacuated as reported by the media.
- It was reported that one employee was covered with the powder and was not showered.
- Staff was eventually sent into other areas of the building without being decontaminated.
- Again affected staff (not only the three directly affected) have not been offered any form of counselling or support even when some employees were visibly distressed.
- Finally, after all this occured, no OH&S representative was involved in the original investigation of the incident. Convenient.
We quote directly from Australia Post management:
"Australia Post is proud of its record on Occupational Health and Safety. We take our OHS obligations very seriously and have a strong commitment to providing staff with a safe working environment."
- Peter Rogan, National Human Resources Manager, Mail and Networks Division, Australia Post (2 July, 2008)