Narrowed Ergonomics Standard Likely to Inflame Labor Unions

California is poised to become the first state to launch a program to combat carpal tunnel syndrome and other widespread repetitive motion injuries in the workplace.

But don’t expect hearty cheers from union leaders or job safety activists. The ergonomics standard that is almost certain to be adopted next month by the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board is far more limited than originally envisioned.

In fact, the Cal/OSHA standards board last month substantially narrowed the regulatory plan even further. The most far-reaching of the new revisions exempts employers with fewer than 10 workers from any regulation.

Initially the program, which was mandated by the Legislature as part of its workers’ compensation reform package in 1993, was conceived as a broad initiative that would cover every worker in California.

The goal was to dramatically curb repetitive motion injuries, which are the nation’s fastest-growing category of occupational ailments. They include everything from the tendinitis afflicting supermarket cashiers to the back sprains suffered by factory workers.

After Cal/OSHA employees came up with an ambitious initial proposal two years ago, however, the all-Republican standards board refused to take action. The board went back to work on a new program only after being slapped with a court order.

The main argument against the far-reaching initial ergonomics regulation was that it would have imposed burdensome costs on many firms, even when no problems existed. Moreover, many opponents argue that experts still don’t know how to prevent repetitive motion injuries.

“There are some real safety issues associated with repetitive motion injuries, but I think the science is fuzzy and the remedies are fuzzy,” said James P. Smith, a senior economist with the Rand Corp. think tank in Santa Monica and a member of the standards board.

Smith, who successfully argued for the small-business exemption, said the board is trying “to eliminate situations where the costs would be high and the benefits low.”

Along with exempting small businesses, the board has narrowed the proposal to apply only to companies where two or more workers doing “identical” tasks suffer repetitive motion injuries in a given year.

When the two-injury rule is triggered, employers would be required to provide special training to the hurt workers. Employers would also be called on to “consider” a wide variety of additional remedies, including adding rest breaks or slowing down assembly lines.

The repeated easing of the proposal has infuriated labor officials such as Maggie Robbins, the San Francisco-based Western states health and safety coordinator for the Service Employees International union.

“Putting in a rule that exempts small employers from coverage is outrageous,” Robbins said. “Is it trying to say that workers at small employers aren’t at risk, or that workers at small employers don’t count?”

If, as expected, the board passes the standard at its Nov. 14 meeting, observers say it’s a good bet that labor unions will take the issue back to court. The lawyers would probably argue that the ergonomics standard fails to meet the legislative mandate to minimize on-the-job injuries.

Developing Loyalty

In an era when employee loyalty is being shredded, the influential National Alliance of Business is offering a possible solution: Give all workers lots of “employability” benefits.

Many of the recommended benefits, including portable pension plans such as 401(k)s and training programs that provide widely marketable job skills, would make it easier for workers to jump from company to company. But a draft of a white paper being written by the business-led nonprofit group argues that in an increasingly volatile labor market, such benefits are crucial to attract and keep the best talent.

For those workers who are cut loose, the NAB approach would soften the blow. It urges employers to provide all laid-off employees with severance pay and outplacement help and also suggests that firms continue to pay for health insurance for several months after a job ends. “Tomorrow’s top firms will build loyalty not by treating training and benefits as perks, but by extending them to every employee,” the draft says.

Many of these topics and related issues will be debated at the NAB’s annual work force conference, which began Saturday and runs through Tuesday at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles.

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These are rah-rah days for new college graduates. Although many 1996 graduates believe a “glass ceiling” still limits the progress of women, 65% of the men and 59% of the women questioned in a poll conducted for the Graduate Management Admission Council expect that in 20 years their standard of living will exceed that of their parents at the same age. A separate survey by the Brecker & Merryman consulting firm in New York suggests why the grads are upbeat: It found that more than half of all employers have raised starting salaries for college graduates since last year, with increases averaging 5%.