GOP scuttles job-safety rules

Guidelines to limit repetitive-motion injury will be axed

NICK ANDERSON, LOS ANGELES TIMES

WASHINGTON -- Republican-sponsored legislation to wipe out the first federal job-safety rules targeting repetitive-motion injuries won final congressional approval Wednesday from the House after a short and fiercely partisan debate.

Ramming the measure through their chamber one day after it passed the Senate with equal speed, House Republican leaders whipped their ranks into line on an issue crucial to the party's allies in the business community.

The House vote to kill the job-safety rules, issued in the final weeks of the Clinton administration, was 223-206. The House action followed a 56-44 Senate vote Tuesday.

The repeal legislation now heads to the White House. President Bush signaled that he will sign it.

The congressional action, completed less than a week after the legislation was introduced in the Senate, meant at least a pause -- perhaps a long one -- in a decade-long federal rule-making effort meant to lead employers nationwide to adopt the principles of ergonomics.

Those principles, which call for working conditions tailored to the physical limits of workers, are applied in programs to reduce injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis and other disorders caused by repetitive, stressful or awkward motions. Federal data show that such ailments, known as musculoskeletal disorders, force at least 600,000 workers off the job each year.

The rules in question require most employers to take steps to inform employees about ergonomics and possible hazards in the workplace. Those who receive verified complaints of a work-related musculoskeletal disorder are required, under the rules, to take steps to remedy to problem. The Clinton administration estimated the cost of implementation in the first year would be $4.5 billion; businesses complained it could be 20 times that amount.

The Olympian Copyright 2000

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