Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced that she would convene three national public forums on the issue of ergonomics safety in the workplace and that she will identify a final course of action on the issue by September. Chao stated, “Defining the best approach for ergonomic injuries is not a simple process and we need everyone’s voice heard in the process. Guiding principles will provide a vital starting point for evaluating the issue and a point from which we can decide a final course of action.”
The “guiding principles” that the Department of Labor will use as a starting point for creating a new ergonomics approach include prevention, sound science, incentive-driven cooperation between OSHA and employers, flexibility for varying capabilities and characteristics of different businesses, feasibility for small businesses, and clarity (including short, simple, and common sense instructions).
The forums will be held in Washington, DC, on July 16; Illinois on July 20; and California on July 24, 2001. Members of the public may speak at a forum or submit written comments. An administrative law judge will run the forums, though the Secretary and other senior Department officials will participate in portions of the forums.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 582,300 musculoskeletal injuries that resulted in employees missing time from work in 1999, the last year for which statistics are available. That was down from 1998 figures, which showed 592,500 such injuries, and down from more than 763,000 in 1993.
Based on a report from OSHA
