Getting a warning letter for being injured on the job?

[ups_vette]

rth87:

One doesn't have to be in management to recognize when someone uses safe work methods as an excuse for their poor performance. There are millions of people, in all areas of empoyment, who work safely and meet goals set by their employer, Dannyboy, I'm sure, being one of them.

snowdog:

Unless you're trying out for the Canadian Olympic Weight Lifting Team, you have no business trying to lift a 130 pound package by yourself.

The proper "Safe Work Method"
is to have someone assist you.

 

[phill]

I agree that someone who has an injury while working that could have been avoided by using the methods should get a "do better leter."

No. No. No. No letter is needed unless UPS can prove that the employee completely disregarded safety procedures. And when you work in a HUB, injuries will happen. There is a lot of moving parts and heavy equipment all around you. Banging your knee into the metal rollers in a trailer will happen, it has happen to me a few times. Or having boxes fall on you, getting cuts and splinters or pulling a muscle.

 

[dannyboy]

"snowdog:

Unless you're trying out for the Canadian Olympic Weight Lifting Team, you have no business trying to lift a 130 pound package by yourself."

Vette

There is NO time EVER that an employee is ever to lift a package over 75 pounds. What he does out side of work has no bearing on the safe work methods used at work.

Accident and injury investigation is a very helpful tool in prevention. In our building we had three drivers injured at the same stop, and management never went to the business to see why. AT our safety meeting I asked why not? THey really could not give me an answer as to why they did not investigate at the injury site. I called the district safety manager and they told our center manager that the safety co-chairs must go on site to investigate.

Bottom line is if you sit back and do nothing, bad practices will continue, both as a company and personally. Every employee MUST work safely....all the time. And if you use methods, you will not only do the job correctly but efficiently. Those of you that use safe work methods as an excuse for poor performance are just trying to steal time. Over and under, that is another subject. BUt there is no way that safe work methods slow you down.

That being said there are things that will happen. I spent all of september and october off with a pulled groin that was caused by an O/70 being loaded on the top shelf. As I started to pull on the package, the contents shifted and the package fell. I was not able to get out of the way and let it fall, so I had to "catch" it. The resulting strain hurt, but as the day wore on it got to where I could hardly walk, esp while carrying a package. THe last time I was injured was 4 years ago when I was delivering a packge that came apart, and the contents (some metal ducting) caught my finger on the way down and cut it over 80% off. So they do happen.

As for what happens after you get injured, that is when things get interesting. A few years back I broke my right foot at about 11:30 in the morning. Called the center and was asked "well how do you know its broken?" I worked on it until I got done at 6:50 at which time they had me go to another stop and pickup and deliver quite a few misloads that other drivers had droped off. I got back to the building at 10 that night and to the ER by 10:30. That is the way that things were before OSHA and others took an intrest in what was going on at UPS.

Ive got a Ketter Audit in the building tonite and tomorrow. I hope it does well, have worked my butt off to get things up to date.

de

 

[my2cents]

d,

Is that "Ketter" or "Keller?" Everyone in my center calls them "Ketter" to. My steward was interested in finding out who these people are, so I did some online research for him. I couldn't find any OHSA consultants under "Ketter," although JJ Keller & Associates, Inc. turned up in the search. While all the centers in our state were being audited, JJ Keller held a training seminar at a nearby truck show. Our building had our audit a couple weeks ago and scored in the high 90's. Good luck with your audit.

 

[wornoutupser]

In our building, getting over 70 help is next to impossible.
We had a corpse that weighed 120 lbs that rode in the truck for 2 weeks because no help was given to the driver. Management finally delivered it themselves.This was the joke of the century, that the corpse got to ride all over the place before going to the facility. The preload had a blast with this one!
We have one run that delivers to a farm 28 miles from the building. Many over 70's have simply been pushed off the back of the truck because UPS refuses to send another driver that far out.
Mangament just can not understand why they got a 60% ERI this year..Hmmmmm

 

[brownmonster]

Just got denied comp. for a hernia. Guess those 800 boxes a day I move around the house caused it! Now I get to battle with Liberty Mutual. Why do you have to fight for everything you get at UPS. And fools think everything would be fine without a union. Ha!

 

[dannyboy]

It is Ketter. They are a firm that has been hired (Ive heard created) by UPS to prove to Osha that we are serious about safety. THey have done 2 centers here in Eastern Tennessee, one passed and one failed. One of the reasons they were created to audit UPS is that OSHA wanted to fine the hell out of UPS for violations, and this was an agreement out of the fines. THe way I understand it, should we fail a number of audits, the fines will be laid back on UPS. So UPS has a large finacial reason to be a safe place to work.

Mostly they look to see if the paperwork is completed, like HABITS training, Injury data analysis, on and on.

Kinda interesting, I did a JHA this AM, Three major safety violations, one running accross the building floor, two moving package cars without seatbelts on. Two of these were sups, and the third was a feeder driver on layoff working the preload.

Nice to see the package section paying attention to details. Now if we can just get management involved in safety

d

 

[tieguy]

Ketter is an organization that reports to OSHA. They were not created by UPS. There are several that work in the same capacity around the country. When we orignally discussed internal audits with OSHA we did not want them on property. We then selected agencies from an OSHA approved list that we would allow to perform the audits.

 

[dannyboy]

But Phill

A letter of concern is indeed needed. It is one way that UPS can show it is following up on your injury. It all is part of the song and dance with osha, and just a small part of the paperwork pile they can show to let them know they do care and are doing things to prevent injuries.

Think about it, why do all the monthly training(giving you the answers) to stick into the safety book. ITs all in documentation, documentation, documentation.

You say youve never been told about this and that? They have got training rosters that show youve been trained, at least yearly if not monthly.

So yes, a letter from UPS when you are injured is very necessary.

Tie

I hear there are several centers/buildings where OSHA did get on property, and then stayed because of what they "found". I love it when the gooberment can enter our lives uninvited.

d

(Message edited by dannyboy on November 03, 2003)

 

[proups]

I love the people that pulled portions of my post on injuries and abused them.

I'm not naive enough to think that nobody will get injured on the job. I just hate the people that abuse the system. Every center has at least one, and when we can catch them doing something outside of their restrictions off the job, we should report them (and we do).

dammor: how the heck did your guy get run over by a cattle truck? That is so bizarre I hope you were making it up.

There needs to be a disciplinary process that will deal with people who repeatedly get injured. And when I mean deal with people, that process should not be a long one, and should result in termination. I get tired of seeing drivers have to continually pick up the slack for the people that abuse the system.

 

[dammor]

proups,

He was in a UPS truck and the cattle truck ran a stop sign and nailed him. VERY lucky to be alive.

I also belive there are some who try to and do abuse the system. I don't think the folks that don't though should be treated as criminals.
It's bad enough being hurt. It's even worse to have to fight with the company through an injury.
I guess in fairness they have to treat everyone as if they are liars. Good news is if you get cancer they will not investigate.

 

[jacques]

I also received a reprimand letter for getting injured on the job. I filed a grievence and won therefor the letter was removed from my file. According to the canada work act it is illegal to reprimand in any way a worker injured while at work. The Canadian labor laws override our collective agreement. But get this, since then another driver injured at work just recieved the same letter. Do they have nerve or what!

 

[nevadapaul]

Do they have a "Teamster.net" for canadians??

 

[snowdog]

The Teamsters website is www.teamsters.org

 

[qcd]

The auditing group is KETER Consultants. You can find them at www.keter.com

 

[proups]

dammor: sorry about the cattle truck incident. I hoped you would tell me that the cattle truck blew an intersection and our guy could not avoid it. Hope all turns out well.

I don't think that anybody who has a legitimate injury should have to fight with the company either, or be treated like liars. Those people would probably get treatment and be right back at work.

My beef is solely with the person that has at least an injury or two a year and takes time away from work EVERY injury. Other drivers have to pay for it.

The CHSP Committees that are proud of what they are trying to accomplish - a safe work environment and meeting their safety goals - pay for this as well with the increase in their injury frequency. They also have to do an injury analysis. I look at some of these injuries and clearly see where methods were not used.

 

[my2cents]

Thanks qcd, mystery solved.