04/05/2002
Group Calls For Strong Small-Business Representation on Advisory Committee
The small-business group NFIB today said that the Department of Labor's (DOL's) decision to set up a national advisory committee on ergonomics and to provide guidance on preventing ergonomics injuries is a "helping hand" in contrast to the Clinton administration's "menacing fist" regulatory approach. However, the group also expressed concern that the department's announcement could lead to a burdensome new mandate in the future if the views of small business are ignored, as they were in the past.
"Small businesses are already among the safest places to work," said NFIB Senior Vice President Dan Danner. "The way to make them even safer is to work with small-business owners in a helpful way, rather than playing an adversarial, threatening role. Hopefully, the voice of small business will be well represented on this new advisory committee and in any future ergonomics proposals so we can protect Main Street from a strict new regulation that would do little, if anything, to improve safety."
In the final weeks of the Clinton administration, DOL finalized a new ergonomics mandate that many said was too restrictive, especially for small businesses, which do not have regulatory compliance departments like huge corporations have. At the time, NFIB called the ergonomics proposal "likely the most expensive mandate ever imposed on small business," and activated its grassroots army with fax alerts to tens of thousands of its members across America. Congress and President Bush agreed that the regulation was too restrictive and did not adequately address the concerns of small employers, and the regulation was repealed with a Joint Resolution of Disapproval in March 2001.
Not only would the Clinton administration's ergonomics mandate have been the costliest regulation ever imposed, it was also based on unproven science and was hard even for experts to explain how small businesses could make certain they were in compliance. Moreover, the federal government would have held employers responsible for employee injuries that may have occurred outside of the workplace but were "significantly aggravated" on the job. These injuries could have occurred from such activities as weight training, bowling or playing softball.
"The ultimate goal in any federal ergonomics policy should always be to reduce the number of workplace injuries," Danner noted. "This approach is undoubtedly much better than the previous administration's approach was in moving us toward that ultimate goal, but we'll continue to voice the concerns of small business if it looks like this administration is going down the wrong path."
CONTACT: Michelle Dimarob, (202) 554-9000
