OSHA Drops Ergonomics Recordkeeping Requirement
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) altered standards on June 30 for recording workplace injuries and illnesses, eliminating a provision that required employers to document workers’ ergonomic injuries.
The Clinton administration, in its final days, established these recordkeeping standards, which required employers to specify which injuries were musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs or ergonomic injuries). The Bush administration twice delayed the effective date of these ergonomic reporting provisions, which were fiercely opposed by industry. Then, based on recommendations from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among others, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in December of 2002, instructed OSHA to reconsider the MSD recordkeeping standards altogether.
An estimated one million workers suffer from serious injuries related to ergonomic hazards each year, according to a January 2001 report from the National Academy of Sciences, making MSDs the most pressing health and safety issue confronting the workplace today. The Bush administration has not only failed to protect workers from MSDs, but has also -- by dropping this recordkeeping requirement --made it extremely difficult to even gauge the frequency of such injuries.