State Board Passes Plan on Ergonomics Injuries

Responding to a legislative mandate to curb widespread repetitive motion injuries, California authorities Thursday approved a revised ergonomics standard that would be the first such workplace safety plan in the nation.

The controversial plan, the product of years of study and political haggling, would cover all workplaces where 10 or more people are employed and could take effect by July.

Still, the ergonomics standard faces legal challenges from both organized labor and employer groups. The plan also requires the approval of the state Office of Administrative Law, which, in a surprise move in January, rejected a previously proposed standard as too vague.

The Republican-dominated California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board approved the terse, 1 1/2-page plan by a 4-2 vote. The action came amid speculation that the program still lacks the detail to satisfy the Office of Administrative Law, an independent regulatory review agency.

In fact, the revised standard remains a disappointment both to some employers, who feel the regulation is unwarranted, and to union activists, who once counted on a far broader, more proactive approach to combating repetitive motion injuries.

“Both sides hate it for different reasons,” said Julianne A. Broyles, a lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce, which is among the employer groups opposing the plan.

Passage of a standard was required by workers’ compensation reform legislation adopted in 1993. It was envisioned as a way to reduce such painful disorders as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis and muscle sprains. The program would apply in both white-collar and blue-collar workplaces and would cover everyone from computer typists to meatpackers.

The action comes as the rate of repetitive motion injuries--also known by such terms as repetitive stress injuries and repeated or cumulative trauma disorders--may finally be slowing down in the workplace.

Federal figures released last month showed that repeated trauma disorders fell 7% to 308,200 in 1995, the most recent year for which statistics from private employers are available. That was the first decline since 1982 in what had been the nation’s fastest-spreading occupational ailment.

Employer groups have complained that there isn’t enough scientific evidence available on the possible causes or cures for repetitive motion injuries to warrant potentially costly regulations.

“We can’t create a rule until there’s a consensus in the scientific community,” said James H. Lewis, spokesman for American Trucking Assns., which is suing the standards board to block the rule.

But worker advocates, including union officials, maintained that the recent decline in repetitive motion injuries suggests that there are ways employers can reduce the problem.

“We’re happy that injuries have gone down, and maybe they’ve gone down because some concerned employers have taken steps themselves,” said Tom Rankin, the second-in-command of the California Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

“Good employers don’t have to worry--they’re probably doing the right things,” he added. “It’s the problem employers who are affected by the law.”

The ergonomics standard is triggered when at least two workers are diagnosed by a licensed physician with injuries from performing identical tasks during the same 12-month period.

To meet one of the Office of Administrative Law’s objections, the standards board elaborated on what it meant by “identical.” The revised standard says that two workers performing word processing or two workers loading or assembling goods would be among those considered to be doing identical tasks.

Once triggered, the standard mandates that employers provide special training to injured workers and others handling the same duties.

The standard also calls on employers to combat identified workplace injury hazards with corrective measures, including such possible steps as more rest breaks for, say, factory workers with aching backs or adjustable desks for typists with sore wrists.