| Springfield, Missouri -- Southwest Missouri
Congressman Roy Blunt described final ergonomic rules from the
Occupational Health and Safety Administration as "confusing as the
IRS code and will needlessly ‘gobble' up American jobs. These
rules are really a turkey." The rules released this week
includes a 1,000 page preamble. Blunt predicts that the
cost of implementing these rules are likely to be ‘staggering' and
will make millions of American workers less competitive and less
productive without providing satisfactory workplace safety benefits.
Blunt, who successfully sponsored the Workplace Preservation Act
that passed the House in last July, urged the Senate to take up the
legislation in early 2000. The measure would prohibit OSHA from
implementing the new rules until a first-of-its-kind study by the
National Academy of Sciences is completed in early 2001. The
study is looking at the links between work place environments and
repetitive stress motion.
"I'm objecting to these rules because of their total lack of
scientific and economic justification for worker
safety." An independent examination of the rules
by a consultant for the Small Business Administration said the
compliance costs are likely to be more than ten times higher than
OSHA's 4.1 billion projection. The OSHA rule also appears to
move repetitive stress injuries out the state's workers compensation
program into a new federal entitlement. The Congressman says,
"The very fact that the preamble to these rules is 1,000 pages long,
indicates the problem OSHA has and the problems they will create for
employees and employers by not being able to state them decisively
and definitively.
Blunt agreed with National Federation of Independent Business
Senior Vice President Dan Danner who said, "It is absurd to require
small business owners to provide ‘ergonomically correct' workplaces
when scientists and doctors employed by OSHA can't define what
‘ergonomically correct' means. This overly broad rule also
places more power in the hands of OSHA inspectors and is consistent
with OSHA ‘gotcha' enforcement system, which terrifies small
business owners."
In another response to OSHA's estimated cost of compliance, the
Food Distributors International estimates the costs to the food
distribution industry alone could top $21 billion. According to the
Labor Department, more than 27-million workers would be covered by
the ergonomic rules. | 
