"The NCE applauds the Congressional leadership for putting the interests of American businesses and their work ahead of political expedience," said NCE Co-Chairman Ed Gilroy. "The so-called ergonomics ‘compromise’ proposed by the Clinton Administration would have all but assured the implementation of a bad regulation that would inevitably cost billions of dollars and put thousands of American jobs at risk – while not guaranteeing that a single injury will be prevented."

According to the NCE, the proposed ergonomics "compromise" represented no compromise at all on the part of the Administration. As reported, it would have allowed the issuance of a final ergonomics regulation, without regard to the fact that a new Administration that might wish to rescind or otherwise modify the rule prior to its final promulgation.

"OSHA Secretary Charles Jeffress has suggested that the next administration could simply rescind the rule with a wave of the hand. This is absurd," said NCE Lobbying Task Force Co-Chair Robb MacKie. "As Secretary Jeffress must know, the OSH Act provides that revoking a final rule requires the same unwieldy rulemaking process with appropriate notice and comment, hearings, and judicial reviews. To suggest that a new administration could do in a couple of months what normally takes OSHA years to accomplish defies commonsense."

"The opinion of the business community was unanimous: This so-called compromise was no compromise," said NCE Lobbying Task Force Co-Chair Randy Johnson. "With the Presidential election a week away, real compromise would allow the next administration to determine the scope and direction of ergonomic regulations."

The NCE represents every segment of the American workplace. The membership consists of individual companies and trade associations who have banded together to support the principle that ergonomic regulations should be predicated on sound science. The over 350 members of the NCE include physicians, dentists and other healthcare services; trucking companies; florists; bakers; beverage companies and distributors; printers; utility contractors; public sector employers; food and merchandise retailers; manufacturers; small and large businesses; and wholesale distributors of food and merchandise.