Copyright 2000 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
November 12, 2000, Sunday, Home Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 7B
LENGTH: 436 words
HEADLINE:
U.S. may force overhaul in workplace safety rules
BYLINE: From our news services
SOURCE: AJC
BODY:
Washington --- Despite opposition from industry groups and congressional
Republicans, the Clinton administration is expected to issue a final rule Monday
that requires employers to create programs to protect workers from repetitive
motion injuries, government officials and business representatives say.
The sweeping new standard, which has been in the making by the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration for nearly a
decade, covers about 6 million workplaces and more than 100 million workers, The
Washington Post said.
The regulation would take effect shortly before
Jan. 20, when the new president is inaugurated, The New York Times reported.
Virtually all the nation's employers would have to adapt the workplace
to the science of ergonomics, requiring employers to better fit jobs to the
physical limitations of their workers. OSHA officials hope to
cut in half over the next decade the 600,000 repetitive stress
injuries that result in lost work time each year.
The hospital,
restaurant, grocery, and trucking and courier industries will need to make the
most changes in the workplace, OSHA predicted.
The rule
also targets the millions of workers who sit in front computer screens all day,
typing and using mouses.
''We have recognized that musculoskeletal
disorders are a significant part of the injuries and illness in America,''
Charles Jeffress, the assistant secretary of Labor who heads
OSHA, told the Post. ''We have needed a better tool to address
this. These injuries have declined, but they still remain a third of all
workplace injuries.''
Under the new rule, employers will have to inform
their workers about these kinds of workplace ailments and how they can report
them, beginning next October. Employees who have a work-related injury would
have to receive medical attention and time off with pay. And the employer would
have to work at eliminating or lessening the hazard that caused the problem.
The GOP majority in Congress has been determined to put off the new rule
until next year in hopes there would be a Republican president more sympathetic
to industry's strong opposition to the rule.
''The important threshold
in terms of this argument will be crossed next week when they are published,''
Scott Lilly, minority staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, told
the Times.
Both the House and the Senate this summer voted mainly along
party lines to bar OSHA from issuing the standards during the
fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The White House said that delay was unacceptable,
and the resulting impasse scuttled a year-end budget accord.
LOAD-DATE: November 12, 2000