Copyright 2000 Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles
Times
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January 12, 2000, Wednesday, Home Edition
SECTION: Business; Part C; Page 6; Financial Desk
LENGTH: 504 words
HEADLINE:
SMALL BUSINESS;
HEARD ON THE BEAT;
GROUPS SEEK MORE TIME TO
REVIEW PROPOSED ERGONOMICS RULES
BYLINE: MARLA
DICKERSON and LEE ROMNEY, TIMES STAFF WRITERS
BODY:
Fired up by their recent success in
getting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to
withdraw a controversial directive on telecommuting, business groups and Capitol
Hill Republicans are now pressuring OSHA for more time to
comment on the agency's latest proposed ergonomics rules.
In November,
OSHA proposed far-reaching regulations to protect an estimated
27 million American workers from repetitive stress injuries.
The agency then gave the public until Feb. 1 to comment on the suggested
standards before it moves forward to finalize them.
In a letter Thursday
to Assistant Secretary of Labor Charles Jeffress, more than 50 legislators
called the comment period "unconscionably short," "disrespectful" and "a slap in
the face" to small-business owners who have been preoccupied with the holidays
and other year-end activities.
Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.),
chairman of the Senate's Small Business Committee, was among the signers, along
with other high-profile Republicans such as Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Sen.
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).
The legislators want Jeffress to extend
the comment period to 30 days after the National Academy of Sciences completes
its study on the relationship between musculoskeletal disorders and job
activities. That study is projected to be finished in early 2001.
Groups
including the National Federation of Independent Business also have lobbied
OSHA, which has received more than 800 letters from
politicians, small-business owners and business activists asking the agency to
extend the comment period. So far, OSHA has shown little
willingness to do so. Last month, Jeffress said publicly that he has no plans to
extend the deadline. That was before Bond and company began their letter-writing
campaign. Now agency officials are staying mum on their intentions.
"We're in the process of responding to members of Congress,"
OSHA spokeswoman Bonnie Friedman said. "That's all I can say at
this point."
The proposed standards essentially would require employers
with manufacturing and manual lifting jobs to implement a formal ergonomics
program in their workplaces. In addition, employers in all industries in which
workers sustain musculoskeletal injuries could be required to analyze and fix
workstations, provide employees with ergonomics training and offer certain
minimum pay benefits, among other things.
The standards represent a
watered-down version of more stringent rules suggested by OSHA
last February. But business leaders remain hostile to the weaker standards,
which they say would cost American businesses far more than the $ 4.2-billion
annual tab estimated by the federal government.
OSHA
has been feeling a lot of heat from business groups and Republican legislators
lately.
Last week, pro-business forces raised such a ruckus over an
OSHA advisory that held companies responsible for the safety of
their employees' home offices that the Labor Department quickly rescinded the
directive after it became public.
LOAD-DATE: January
12, 2000 
