April 2001

Bush Signs Congress' Repeal of Work Safety Rule

WASHINGTON - President George Bush recently signed Congress' first-ever repeal of a workplace rule, striking down a regulation opposed by businesses as too costly but championed by unions as a critical safety measure. The regulation aimed to reduce repetitive strain injuries suffered by an estimated 1 million American workers. It would have required employers to take steps to prevent disorders such as tendinitis or carpal tunnel syndrome. ``In exchange for uncertain benefits, the ergonomics rule would have cost both large and small employers billions of dollars and presented employers with overwhelming compliance challenges,'' Bush said.

The congressional resolution Bush signed scraps a federal safety regulation implemented four days before former President Bill Clinton left office. The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. trade union federation, immediately denounced the action as an ``assault'' on workers at the request of big business. ``Ergonomic injuries are our nation's biggest workplace safety problem... killing this worker safety standard will result in hundreds of thousands more such injuries,'' AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.

The disorders that were targeted by the rejected rule are caused by repetitive motion, such as regular lifting, repeated arm movements or typing. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had said the rule would prevent 460,000 injuries a year. But one business group put its annual cost at $125.6 billion.

A January report by the National Academy of Sciences said the disorders affect about 1 million U.S. workers and cost $45 billion to $54 billion. Democrats had denounced the repeal by Congress as a cave-in to corporate lobbyists.

But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush has directed Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to find ways to protect workers' health and safety without hurting businesses. Chao has said she would consider issuing a different ergonomics rule.

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, an ardent proponent of a safe workplace, suggested recently that the government should be able to shut down businesses that can't improve their performance in this area. Speaking to a summit on workplace safety at Georgetown University, the former chief executive of aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. said one way to bring about improvement would be to create a new set of safety standards. O'Neill said OSHA's rules could be replaced by "an agreement that said within two years every organization in the United States -- public, private, nonprofit -- will have a lost workday rate under two or we'll take your license away."

O'Neill was referring to a method for tracking injuries or illnesses per 100 employees on an annual basis. Thus, his suggestion implied a company should not lose more than two days to injury or illness for each 100 people on the payroll.

Not meeting such a standard would carry penalties, he suggested. O'Neill said such a tough standard would quickly gain the attention of American business. He predicted that between 95% and 98% of American companies would be able to meet that standard. The national average currently is about 3.5 lost workdays to injury annually per 100 employees, according to O'Neill.

Source: Reuters and the Associated Press

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