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With the Clinton Administration just a few months
from ending, the
Occupational Safety & Health Administration is determined to leave their
legacy behind......... The Ergonomics Regulations.
The trucking industry, with the American Trucking Associations in the lead,
is battling the implementation of the new rules. ATA figures that the new
regulations will cost the trucking industry $6 billion a year.
Although supported by labor unions, the regulations are poorly drafted and
not supported by sound science. SafeTrac Solutions opposes the implementation of
yet another regulation, under the guise of safety, that has no real safety basis
or benefit. Huge amounts of money and resources will be expended trying to
comply with this ill-advised regulation, which will take the focus off true
safety issues.
The effects of this proposed regulation could have huge impacts on all
industries in the country. The trucking industry would be especially impacted
considering the physical demands inherent in the industry. Under the regulations
carriers would have to begin to access ergonomic issues
with their equipment and work processes. Everything from driver and dock worker
positions to clerical employee positions would have to be ergonomically correct. This, despite the
fact that there is no clear consensus of what ergonomically correct is.
The regulation also leave employers wide open for ergonomic injuries
incurred off the job. Employers would have a tough time proving an injury was
actually incurred while playing softball off work, and not while operating a
loader on the job.
When reviewing the regulation it is clear that this regulation is a social
engineering regulation, the first step in a national social medicine program,
and not a regulation to improve on-the-job safety.
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