Nearly five out of every 100 warehouse workers get injured on the job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is trying to reduce that number, launching a new Regional Emphasis Program for Warehousing Operation in Pennsylvania, Delaware, the District of Columbia, and West Virginia.
“The injury illness rate among warehousing employers is approximately twice that of all other private sectors,” said Adam Hamrick, the Assistant Area Director for OSHA in Allentown.
“We feel it’s an area we need to focus on,” Hamrick said. ”E-commerce has expanded tremendously – also here in the Lehigh Valley.”
The program has a 90-day outreach portion to work on education efforts with employers before OSHA begins a targeted enforcement initiative.
The program lasts for five years, unless it’s extended.
“We’ll be conducting inspections in the warehousing industry, focusing on hazards such as forklifts, and lockout/tagout,” Hamrick said. ”These will be comprehensive inspections.”
One of the area’s largest employers, Amazon, said – in part – to 69 News: ”We’ve invested billions of dollars in new operations safety measures, technologies and other innovative solutions that protect our employees. We’ve expanded our global workplace health and safety team to more than 8,000 employees across the world who use Amazon’s innovation, technology and data to ensure we are keeping our employees safe.”
Three of the company’s employees died in the last month at three separate New Jersey facilities.
If you’re an employer and you would like to learn more during the outreach period, you can contact the Allentown OSHA office directly at 267-429-7542 or the 24-hour OSHA hotline at 1-800-321-6742.
