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Issue
Should PIA continue to oppose legislation that would establish a mandatory
ergonomics program standard?
Status
In March 2000, Congress rescinded the ergonomics standard. However, legislation
introduced at the time by Senator John Breaux (D-LA) would have required
OSHA to implement a new standard within two years. Since that time, Breaux
has introduced legislation that would make any future standard even worse
than the rescinded one. It would require employers to make all economically
and technologically feasible changes to their workplaces to reduce ergonomic
hazards before any injuries actually take place.
- On April
5, 2002 OSHA released its long-awaited program to reduce ergonomics
injuries. While not perfect, it is far better than the Breaux alternative.
It includes the following:
- OSHA
will partner with individual industries to develop voluntary guidelines
to reduce ergonomic injuries in the workplace. Fines would still
be possible under the general duty clause, but the guidelines would
not themselves be enforceable.
- OSHA
will target high hazard industries and individual companies that
have high injury incidence rates for inspections, citations, and
individualized compliance assistance. (As an industry, printing
is not regarded as being high hazard, however some individual companies
have high injury rates.)
- OSHA
will provide best practices and on-line training assistance to all
businesses, but particularly to small businesses, to help them reduce
injuries.
- OSHA
will conduct further research into the causes of and effective solutions
for ergonomic injuries.
Concerns
PIA needs to focus resources on developing voluntary ergonomics guidelines
for the industry to reduce injuries and to keep OSHA’s attention
away from printing. We will then need to translate that information into
training for printing companies of all sizes. PIA has signed an historic
Alliance agreement with OSHA to work cooperatively on safety issues, and
GATF has received an OSHA Harwood grant of $250,000 to develop guidelines
and a training program.
On the other
hand, we remain concerned that the unions will push Congress to pass the
Breaux bill, since they believe the voluntary guidelines will not be adequate
to reduce injuries.
Position
PIA should seek to develop good guidelines for the industry and work to
stop any legislation that would result in a mandatory punitive standard.
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