Ergonomics

This page was last updated on

03.04.2002

THE BASICS -- Ergonomics is the science and the practice of designing jobs or workplaces to match the capabilities and limitations of the human body.

Ergonomic injuries are the single largest occupational health crisis faced by working men and women. Every year in our state more than 50,000 workers are injured. More than one third of our state workers compensation claims are musculoskeletal related, costing $340 million. Those numbers would be much higher if they included self-insured employers. Also many workers do not report these workplace injuries for fear of losing their job.

It is not just our state's problem, nationally musculoskeletal disorders affect 647,000 workers annually, accounting for 34% of all lost workdays and costing some $20 billion.

All of these statistics do not take into consideration the human factor. The lives of workers who suffer from such problems as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis and back injuries are changed forever. Debilitating wrist, shoulder, or back pain cripples many workers. Many become permanently unemployed, or are forced to take severe pay cuts to continue working. Whole families suffer when a worker is injured on the job.

In May 2000, after an intensive 20-month rulemaking and public comment process, the Department of Labor and Industries adopted an Ergonomic Rule aimed to prevent these injuries. The rule establishes requirements for employers along with employees to identify workplace hazards that cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders and to reduce employee exposure to these hazards.

In November 2000, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration adopted an ergonomic standard after a 10 year rulemaking process. Unlike Washington's, it was not preventative and did not require action until after workers are injured. As soon as President Bush took office in 2001, he and the Republican-controlled Congress quickly repealed this standard and, as his father's administration promised more than a decade ago, committed to addressing the issue some time in the future.

LABOR'S POSITION -- Organized labor was instrumental in pushing for adoption of Washington state's ergonomic rule. We believe this is the most important worker safety action developed in since the inception of the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act in 1974. This new protection will prevent hundreds of thousands of crippling injuries each year.

We applaud the state Department of Labor and Industries for meeting this safety problem head on and giving us the best ergonomic rule in the country. There were 14 public hearings held around our state with more than 1,100 citizens attending and testifying. Workers came and told their stories and urged adoption of this much-needed long-overdue rule.

Meanwhile, business associations have opposed this rule every step of the way. They don’t want government involved in their business regardless of the human and societal cost of these injuries. In fact, they question the very science of ergonomics and countless studies demonstrating successful ways to prevent musculoskeletal injury. They do so despite the fact that many businesses have sought and accepted government grants to find ergonomic solutions for their workplace hazards.

Business associations continue to seek the support of legislators to stop the implementation of this rule, which already has the longest phase-in of any rule ever adopted. A recent Wall Street Journal report indicated the business coalition ironically called WE CARE (Washington Employers Concerned About Regulating Ergonomics) has raised more than $300,000 to finance a lobbying and legal assault on the ergonomics rule.

Organized labor will continue to support the phase-in process of educating employers and employees about the state's new ergonomic rule, and how to comply by identifying hazards and removing them. (We believe state businesses would be better served if business associations did the same—helping prepare their members for compliance rather than focusing on torpedoing the rule. Their tactics have not only encouraged ignorance, their outright misrepresentation of the rule has created unwarranted anger and fear among employers.)

Organized labor will fight aggressively to ensure the ergonomics rule remains intact and that the workers of this state retain the right to safe and healthy workplaces.

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