News on 27 November 2000
The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
in the US has issued new workplace regulations which will force many companies
to hire consultants, provide ergonomics training and revamp offices and
assembly lines.
Companies will be asked to lower desk heights, raise conveyer belts and
reduce the loads that many workers have to carry in order to minimise
the risk of injuries from lifting, typing and other repetitive motions.
Labour
unions say the regulations are much needed but business groups have denounced
the rules and have gone to court in an effort to overturn them. Estimates
of the costs by corporate groups vary from $18bn to $120bn a year.
Patrick J. Cleary, vice president for human resources policy at the National
Association of Manufacturers said: "This is the largest regulation
that OSHA has ever issued and probably more costly than anything else
that the Federal government has done in the workplace. It's enormous."
United Parcel Service officials estimate the new rules, which will cover
102 million workers at six million work sites, will cost their company
alone $20bn and business groups argue the costs will far outweigh the
benefits.
However, Charles Jeffress, OSHA's director argued that the new rules,
by preventing many injuries, would actually save American corporations
$9bn a year by reducing workdays lost, as well as medical bills and workers'
compensation claims.
"The biggest savings from the regulations will be in improved productivity
and reduced workers' compensation costs. If injuries occur, you pay the
worker, you pay the doctor, you pay the compensation costs, you lose productivity
from someone being out and you have to train someone new. That's a significant
cost," he added.
With nearly two million injuries a year from repetitive workplace motion,
Jeffress said any cost-benefit analysis should include the pain and suffering
experienced by injured workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, using
a narrower definition of such injuries, said there were about 600,000
of these injuries each year resulting in lost workdays.
www.osha.gov
