The Power of the PS Form 1767

What is a 1767?

A Powerful Form!

(PS FORM 1767-Report of Hazard, Unsafe Condition or Practice)

• Officially documents and addresses employee’s safety hazards or concern in writing.
• Requires a timely written response during your tour by management consistent with ELM Section 824.632.
• It is tracked and identifies abatement date.
• The Joint Local Safety and Health Committee is required to review all 1767s at their meetings.
• User friendly form that is easy to complete – instructions are clearly printed on the back of the form.

The form must be readily available for an employee to use!

Not locked in a supervisor’s desk or any non-accessible area.

The employee must be provided a signed copy of the form (blue copy). It is also suggested you have your union representative make a copy before it is submitted to the supervisor.

This form can be used to document other safety and health related concerns as well (i.e. housekeeping issues, buildings not maintained, dirty bathrooms, bad lighting, abusive supervisors, etc.).

The form may also be completed anonymously and submitted directly to the safety office.

Text SAFETY to 91990 for link to the PS 1767 page.

For more information and assistance in establishing your own safety and health committee, please contact Your Regional Coordinator or Your Regional Safety Rep.

Click here to read the PDF document

Juneteenth National Independence Day

President Biden signed into law Juneteenth National Independence Day Act on June 17, 2021, making June 19 a federal holiday. This new holiday commemorates the final end to slavery in the United States and the Postal Service is fully supportive of annually observing and setting aside a day recognize this historic event.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to cease the operations of the Postal Service to accommodate an observance over the next 24-48 hours. We are part of the nation’s critical infrastructure and our customers are relying on us to deliver our essential services. Closing down operations without providing appropriate time would lead to operational disruption and be a disservice to our customers and those who rely upon us. For that reason , the Postal Service will be operating on June 18 and 19, 2021, on a normal schedule , serving our customers to the best of our ability.
Please immediately communicate our operating status to your employees.

The Postal Service will discuss future recognition of this significant new holiday with our national Unions, Management Associations, and other stakeholders, consistent with our collective bargaining  and consultative obligations under Title 39, Once those discussions take place, we will update you on appropriate developments, but we reiterate that we are fully supportive of this important national holiday.

Doug A. Tulino

To download a PDF copy of this notice, click here.

Now It Is Easier To File FECA COVID Claims

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 that President Biden signed on March 11, 2021, makes it much easier for federal workers diagnosed with COVID-19 to establish coverage under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act. To establish a COVID-19 claim, you simply need to establish that you are a “covered employee,” meaning that:

1. You were diagnosed with COVID-19. Specifically, you were diagnosed with COVID-19 while employed in the Federal service at any time during the period of January 27, 2020 to January 27, 2023; and,
2. Your duties include any risk of exposure. Specifically, within 21 days of your diagnosis of COVID-19, you carried out duties that—

a. required contact with patients, members of the public, or co-workers; or
b. included a risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus.

For more information, and a PDF version of this announcement, click here.

April 2021 Postal Worker West Newsletter

The latest April 2021 edition of the Postal Worker West Newsletter has been published.

The featured article is titled OPM Issues Long Awaited EFEL Guidance.

Joint Area and District Safety and Health Committees

Dear Committee Chair:

The United States Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, are committed to the premise that every postal employee must have a safe and healthy workplace. Article 14 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement states that it is management’s responsibility to provide safe working conditions and that the Union will cooperate with and assist management to live up to this responsibility.

To this end, the Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) want to remind you of the importance of having functioning District and Area Joint Safety and Health Committees, which includes holding regular committee meetings. However, it is more than just having a meeting. District and Area Management and Union Leaders must be committed to making these meetings productive where safety issues can be freely shared, properly addressed, and safety issues jointly resolved. Management and the Union must be open to listening and working together. The goal is that we jointly cooperate on providing safe working conditions that ensure each employee will go home uninjured and healthy at the end of the day. Workplace injuries and illnesses take large tolls on the injured whether it be physical, mental, or in their familial and personal relationships. The financial costs to both the individual and Postal Service are large as well.

The parties at the national level are committed to helping you make your District and Area Joint Safety and Health Committees as effective as possible. In order to accomplish this, we are requesting that the committee let the parties at headquarters know whether or not your District or Area Joint Safety and Health Committees are functioning and meeting regularly. Additionally, we would like your input on what types of training you believe would be beneficial to both management and union safety officials. Do not limit your suggestions to just postal training. Look beyond that to possible OSHA training, the various safety council trainings, or even training other industries and businesses conduct.

We are requesting that you provide your ideas no later than (30 days of the date of letter). Please send your responses via email to: Linda DeCarlo (linda.decarlo@usps.gov) and Charlie Cash (ccash@apwu.org)].

We look forward to cooperating with you to improve workplace safety and the United States Postal Service, so everyone goes home safe at the end of each workday.

Thank-you,
Linda Decarlo & Vance Zimmerman

For the original PDF version of this announcement, click here.