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CWA Presses for Ergonomics Rule at OSHA Hearings
With union activists on one side and corporate lawyers on another, the future of a proposed ergonomics standard is being debated in Washington, D.C., with hearings moving soon to Chicago and Portland, Ore.
A panel of doctors, lawyers and other specialists representing the Occupational Health and Safety Administration and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Labor, are hearing testimony daily.
The proposed standard, which could be in place by the end of the year, aims to protect workers from crippling injuries caused by poor workplace design, repetitive motion and other ergonomic problems. About 1,100 people are scheduled to testify over the next month, including CWA officers, staff and members.
“Essentially we’re going to tell them that there’s overwhelming scientific and practical evidence of the need for a federal ergonomics standard,” CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen said. “Hund-reds of thousands of people are hurt each year because of workplace ergonomic hazards that could be prevented.”
CWA has been a leader in the study of office ergonomics and related injuries, and has been calling for federal action for more than 20 years.
The proposed rule focuses on manual handling and manufacturing businesses, requiring them to address ergonomic issues whether or not workers have reported injuries. However, telecommunications and other office-based employers would be required to make changes at a given work site if even one employee suffers a diagnosed repetitive strain injury.
Nearly two million workers each year suffer back, neck, carpal tunnel and other ergonomic-related injuries, and 600,000 of them require time off to heal. OSHA estimates the rule would save businesses $9 billion a year in workers’ compensation, and may save far more. Making the needed changes is expected to cost $4.2 billion annually.
“It is time to protect American workers from painful and costly musculoskeletal disorders,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman said as the hearings started March 13. “Every working day they rob employees of their vitality, their dignity and their livelihood, and they cheat employers of productivity, experience and profits.”
In spite of that, the business lobby is fighting hard against the proposal and has hired top anti-union lawyers to present testimony to OSHA. The attorneys include Eugene Scalia, son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
In response to union questions on opening day, OSHA panelists said the risk of musculoskeletal disorders is larger than the risk of any other workplace health hazard that OSHA has sought to regulate in the past. Even with the standard, they said the risks of ergonomic injuries will remain high.
Questioned about laws in place for years in Europe designed to protect workers from poor ergonomics, panelists said the United States is lagging behind.
“OSHA is definitely not pioneering here,” panelist Marte Kent, OSHA’s acting director of health standard programs, said. “Many parts of the world are way ahead of us.”
CWA and other labor unions are encouraging members to sit in on the hearings, which begin daily at 8:30 a.m. and run until 6:00 p.m.
Attend a Hearing
They are scheduled on weekdays as follows:
• Through April 7, Auditorium, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.
• April 11-21, Assembly Hall, James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph St., Chicago.
• April 24-May 3, Courtroom 16, Mark Hatfield Federal Court House, 1000 Southwest Third Ave., Portland, Ore.
• May 8-12, Room N3437 A-D, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.
Copies of the ergonomics proposal and supporting materials are available on OSHA’s web site at www.osha.gov under “Ergonomics.”
A panel of doctors, lawyers and other specialists representing the Occupational Health and Safety Administration and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Labor, are hearing testimony daily.
The proposed standard, which could be in place by the end of the year, aims to protect workers from crippling injuries caused by poor workplace design, repetitive motion and other ergonomic problems. About 1,100 people are scheduled to testify over the next month, including CWA officers, staff and members.
“Essentially we’re going to tell them that there’s overwhelming scientific and practical evidence of the need for a federal ergonomics standard,” CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen said. “Hund-reds of thousands of people are hurt each year because of workplace ergonomic hazards that could be prevented.”
CWA has been a leader in the study of office ergonomics and related injuries, and has been calling for federal action for more than 20 years.
The proposed rule focuses on manual handling and manufacturing businesses, requiring them to address ergonomic issues whether or not workers have reported injuries. However, telecommunications and other office-based employers would be required to make changes at a given work site if even one employee suffers a diagnosed repetitive strain injury.
Nearly two million workers each year suffer back, neck, carpal tunnel and other ergonomic-related injuries, and 600,000 of them require time off to heal. OSHA estimates the rule would save businesses $9 billion a year in workers’ compensation, and may save far more. Making the needed changes is expected to cost $4.2 billion annually.
“It is time to protect American workers from painful and costly musculoskeletal disorders,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman said as the hearings started March 13. “Every working day they rob employees of their vitality, their dignity and their livelihood, and they cheat employers of productivity, experience and profits.”
In spite of that, the business lobby is fighting hard against the proposal and has hired top anti-union lawyers to present testimony to OSHA. The attorneys include Eugene Scalia, son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
In response to union questions on opening day, OSHA panelists said the risk of musculoskeletal disorders is larger than the risk of any other workplace health hazard that OSHA has sought to regulate in the past. Even with the standard, they said the risks of ergonomic injuries will remain high.
Questioned about laws in place for years in Europe designed to protect workers from poor ergonomics, panelists said the United States is lagging behind.
“OSHA is definitely not pioneering here,” panelist Marte Kent, OSHA’s acting director of health standard programs, said. “Many parts of the world are way ahead of us.”
CWA and other labor unions are encouraging members to sit in on the hearings, which begin daily at 8:30 a.m. and run until 6:00 p.m.
Attend a Hearing
They are scheduled on weekdays as follows:
• Through April 7, Auditorium, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.
• April 11-21, Assembly Hall, James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph St., Chicago.
• April 24-May 3, Courtroom 16, Mark Hatfield Federal Court House, 1000 Southwest Third Ave., Portland, Ore.
• May 8-12, Room N3437 A-D, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.
Copies of the ergonomics proposal and supporting materials are available on OSHA’s web site at www.osha.gov under “Ergonomics.”