If George W. Bush really wanted to be a compassionate conservative -- and to promote a new bipartisan approach in Washington -- then he would stop Senate Republicans from killing the new standard to prevent workplace injuries. However, if he is simply interested in pay back to big business that supported his campaign, then he'll be perfectly comfortable with this offensive anti-worker action.
In November, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued its long overdue and urgently needed ergonomics standard. Repetitive strain injury caused by exposure to ergonomic hazards is the biggest job safety problem workers face today, accounting for more than a third of all workplace injuries.
Senate Republicans, working with the National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups, will vote as soon as Wednesday to repeal the new OSHA standard using an extreme, never-before-used measure called the Congressional Review Act. If they are successful, this will be the first time in OSHA's 30-year history that a worker health and safety law has ever been repealed.
Too many workers have suffered too long -- ergonomics injuries and illnesses cause more than 600,000 serious workplace injuries each year. These injuries disproportionately affect women.
Work on the new standard started during the George H.W. Bush administration under Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole, and was issued after 10 years of review. During the lengthy and drawn-out debate over the need for an ergonomics standard, employer representatives opposed to the rule contended that the scientific basis of the standard was inadequate. At the urging of Congress, the prestigious National Academy of Sciences was asked to conduct a review of the scientific evidence on the relationship between musculoskeletal disorders and the workplace.
In addition to finding that these painful disorders are work-related, the Academy of Sciences report further concludes that the problem can be reduced with well-designed intervention programs, tailored to specific workplaces. The report recommends that these interventions include employee participation, employer commitment, and the development of integrated programs that address equipment design, work procedures, and organizational characteristics. OSHA's recently issued standard incorporates these principals and would be highly effective in preventing work-related musculoskeletal injuries. The report also calls for a "broad coherent effort" to institute ergonomic and other preventive strategies.
While many employer groups complain that the cost of preventing these injuries is too high, the complaint is industry's typical overblown response to nearly every rule OSHA has ever proposed. According to a 1995 Office of Technology Assessment report, industry concerns of oppressive costs are usually way off target. In fact, it found that OSHA tended to overestimate the costs of its own rules. For example, when OSHA proposed limiting worker exposure to cotton dust, industry warned that compliance would cost $2.3 billion. OSHA's revised cost projection was $280.3 million, which industry thought was way too low. In the end, textile mills reduced the risk to workers' lungs for $82.8 million -- $192.5 million less than OSHA's projection and billions less than industry's estimate. This is not an isolated case.
With the cost issue put to rest, industry has no real arguments to support reopening the rule-making record -- and Congress has no legitimate reasons to overturn the rule. Extensive scientific evidence and an exhaustive rule-making record supports the final standard -- which requires employers to identify and fix jobs that cause repetitive strain injuries.
In the decade it took to promulgate the ergonomics standard, more than six million Americans suffered painful and sometimes crippling injuries. Now that the standard has been issued, it's time to stop the pain.
