April 16, 2010:NWLP
4/13/10
10:04 AM
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Ergonomic regulation reform put on the back burner
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
It’s been nine years since a Repub-
lican-majority Congress stepped in to
overturn brand-new workplace er-
gonomic regulations issued by the Oc-
cupational Safety and Health Admin-
istration (OSHA). One year into a
Democratic White House and Demo-
cratic-majority Congress, there’s no
appetite in Congress for reinstating
those regulations.
Ergonomics, the science of fitting
work to the worker, is about maximiz-
ing productivity and minimizing in-
jury. In practice, it means introducing
tools, equipment, and training to pre-
vent workplace injuries caused by
repetitive motion and overexertion. Er-
gonomics injuries, more properly
called musculoskeletal disorders — in-
clude sprains and strains from heavy
lifting, and carpal tunnel and tendinitis
from repetitive motion. Taken together,
they make up the biggest single cate-
gory in workers’ compensation cases,
both in frequency and dollar amount of
claims.
In the 1990s, the labor movement
pushed hard to get OSHA to use its
rule-making authority to require that
employers address ergonomic hazards.
OSHA is the agency that enforces the
Occupational Safety and Health Act.
The act requires employers to provide
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a workplace “free from recognized
hazards that are likely to cause death
or serious physical harm.” As part of its
enforcement of the law, OSHA sets
safety and health standards for differ-
ent kinds of workplaces, like allowable
levels of exposure to lead and arsenic,
or requirements for personal protective
equipment.
Led by the appointees of President
Bill Clinton, OSHA developed similar
rules for ergonomics. But business
groups fought fiercely against the in-
troduction of those rules, and from
1994 on, the Republican-led Congress
attached “riders” to annual appropria-
tions bills, specifically forbidding
OSHA from releasing ergonomics reg-
ulations. OSHA finally had an oppor-
tunity to institute such a regulation just
as Clinton was leaving office.
The regulation would have required
employers to implement an ergonom-
ics program if they had musculoskele-
tal injuries in a workplace. That would
include looking at injury rates and
evaluating jobs for risk factors, and
then mitigating risks with equipment
and training. It would also include pro-
cedures to identify medical conditions
early on, before they become serious.
Employees would have to be involved
in the workplace response, and have
access to training. Finally, the most
controversial part of the regulation: In
addition to paying medical costs and
lost wages, employers would have to
pay injured workers wages until they
could get back to their regular jobs.
Business groups, including the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, lobbied Con-
gress heavily to oppose the regulation,
and in March 2001, Congress voted to
repeal the ergonomics standard and
prevent OSHA from issuing a new
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
one. It was the first time since the 1971
passage of the Occupational Safety and
Health Act that Congress had inter-
vened to strike down a regulation ap-
plying the law. The vote was largely
along party lines, except that six Senate
Democrats and 16 House Democrats
joined Republicans in striking down
the law, while 13 House Republicans
bucked their party and voted to uphold
the regulation. The AFL-CIO de-
nounced the repeal, citing it as evi-
dence that the Republican White
House and Congress were fundamen-
tally anti-worker.
Safety and health standards overall
declined during the years of the Bush
Administration, says AFL-CIO Safety
and Health Director Peg Seminario.
“It wasn’t just that [OSHA] didn’t
act,” Seminario said. “Employers
turned away from making investments
in safety. Much of the progress that
was made on ergonomics as a result of
strong enforcement actions in meat-
packing, poultry and the auto industry
eroded.”
“But when the dust settled over the
giant political controversy, people went
back to what is the logical thing to do,”
said Steven Hecker, senior lecturer of
environmental and occupational health
sciences at the University of Washing-
ton School of Public Health. OSHA
made voluntary guidelines available
about ergonomic best practices in five
specific industries. And some busi-
nesses voluntarily implemented im-
proved ergonomics practices, Hecker
said.
“Many industries have recognized
you can reduce workers’ comp costs
and improve productivity by dealing
with poorly designed work stations and
assembly lines,” Hecker said.
States also acted. California OSHA
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APRIL 16, 2010