Several USPS initiatives designed to reduce workplace illness and injury-related costs have shown results, an IG report has said, while noting that the Postal Service still accounts for a disproportionate amount of claims and costs government-wide in the FECA program.
For example, an initiative to reduce motor vehicle and industrial accidents resulted in a decrease in total accidents over 2015-2019 of about 7 percent. An initiative to increase returns to work resulted in a similar-sized decrease, of 8 percent, of the number of employees on the FECA “periodic roll”—employees receiving workers’ compensation benefits and having disabilities that are expected to be permanent or indefinite.
However, the Postal Service with about 633,000 employees accounts for about half of all cases and costs under the FECA program, compared with the 2.1 million employees in other agencies also under the program. Its annual cash outlay for workers’ compensation costs is nearly $1.4 billion and its estimated long-term cost is $19 billion, the report said.