Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Administration Strikes Another Blow at Ergonomics
As an encore to killing the ergonomics rule two years ago, the Bush administration is making it easy for employers to continue to grossly underreport the number of workers who suffer job-related musculoskeletal disorders, from carpal tunnel syndrome to neck and back injuries.
The Department of Labor has dropped the requirement for a box on injury report forms that employers are supposed to check to record MSDs.
The box was a simple way for business, labor and government to keep track of the number of injuries, but doing so isn't in the interest of corporate America or its friends in the White House, CWA Safety and Health Director Dave LeGrande said. "Not having a box to check means they can make the problem look far smaller than it is," he said. "It's an outright lie."
Employers still have to fill out injury and report forms for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but LeGrande said they are rarely complete. Oftentimes managers simply don't understand a medical condition well enough to explain it accurately.
For instance, he said, based on reporting forms submitted by Verizon, only 1 percent of its workers suffered MSDs. But in a pre-bargaining news release critical of employee absenteeism, Verizon itself said that more than 25 percent of workers had lost time due to the disorders.
Micki Siegel de Hernández, health and safety director for CWA District 1, reviewed injuries reported by Verizon workers in New York state and determined that 22 percent of workers had MSD-related problems. "That's substantially more than what was reported on OSHA forms, and much closer to what Verizon itself says now," LeGrande said.
But what makes it onto government reporting forms is what becomes the data to determine how serious a problem is and how much study, and funding, should be committed to it, he said. "When the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out with press releases saying that MSDs are at a record low, this is the reason why," he said. "This is another gift from the Bush administration to the business lobby."
The Department of Labor has dropped the requirement for a box on injury report forms that employers are supposed to check to record MSDs.
The box was a simple way for business, labor and government to keep track of the number of injuries, but doing so isn't in the interest of corporate America or its friends in the White House, CWA Safety and Health Director Dave LeGrande said. "Not having a box to check means they can make the problem look far smaller than it is," he said. "It's an outright lie."
Employers still have to fill out injury and report forms for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but LeGrande said they are rarely complete. Oftentimes managers simply don't understand a medical condition well enough to explain it accurately.
For instance, he said, based on reporting forms submitted by Verizon, only 1 percent of its workers suffered MSDs. But in a pre-bargaining news release critical of employee absenteeism, Verizon itself said that more than 25 percent of workers had lost time due to the disorders.
Micki Siegel de Hernández, health and safety director for CWA District 1, reviewed injuries reported by Verizon workers in New York state and determined that 22 percent of workers had MSD-related problems. "That's substantially more than what was reported on OSHA forms, and much closer to what Verizon itself says now," LeGrande said.
But what makes it onto government reporting forms is what becomes the data to determine how serious a problem is and how much study, and funding, should be committed to it, he said. "When the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out with press releases saying that MSDs are at a record low, this is the reason why," he said. "This is another gift from the Bush administration to the business lobby."