OSHA News

Congress, Bush Administration Overturn Ergonomics Standard

Congress and the Bush Administration took the unprecedented step of overturning OSHA's ergonomics standard earlier this year. Instead, Bush's OSHA is vowing to address ergonomics in a comprehensive way but with less emphasis on "command-and control" enforcement. This approach should benefit employers.

More than a decade in the making, the ergonomics standard was finalized in the final weeks of the Clinton Administration. It took effect January 16, 2001, but by the middle of March, it was repealed. In signing the bill that repealed the standard, President Bush said the standard "would have cost both large and small employers billions of dollars and presented employers with overwhelming compliance challenges."

In late April 2001, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao testified before Congress that the Bush Administration will try to put its own stamp on this controversial issue. She promised a "comprehensive, principles-based" approach. Among the guiding principles she cited were:

Prevention: Place more emphasis on preventing, rather than treating, musculoskeletal disorders of the back, arms, shoulders and wrists.
Sound science: Any approach should be based on the best available science and research.
Incentive-driven: Cooperation between OSHA and employers is a must.
Flexibility: Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.
Feasibility: Any future action must recognize, and minimize, compliance costs, especially for small businesses.
Clarity: Any approach must include short, simple and common-sense instructions.

Implicit in Chao's comments is the Bush Administration's feeling that the previous standard fell short in those areas. In fact, most business leaders felt from the beginning that the Clinton Administration's approach to ergonomics was too complex, burdensome, vague and expensive. It would have been by far the most ambitious regulation in the agency's 30-year history, covering 102 million workers at 6.1 million general industry work sites.