At deadline, Labor Committee amends, approves misguided ergonomics bill

(March 22, 2006) The Labor Committee has approved a bill that would give employees in Connecticut the responsibility to write company ergonomics policies, investigate complaints and make judgments on complex medical questions.

Before approving the bill, the committee amended it to apply to companies with 100 or more employees in Connecticut, and prohibit the safety committees from examining medical records that would violate federal health information privacy law.

However, the bill still assigns a highly technical task to employees who most often lack the appropriate training -- and getting that training would prove highly costly and distracting to most workplaces in Connecticut.

HB-5740 authorizes a company’s safety and health committees, among other things, to review and analyze injury and illness records and develop written ergonomics policies and procedures for their companies.

Most Connecticut employers say that their safety and health committees — composed of a mix of management and staff who have little or no expertise in ergonomics — would be overwhelmed by their new responsibilities as outlined in HB-5740.

The bill requires employers, through their safety and health committees, to:

1. Review and analyze employee medical records to determine whether there is a pattern of ergonomic-related injuries or illnesses;
2. Review and analyze jobs/work tasks to identify potential ergonomic risks that contribute to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs);
3. Seek input about ergonomic problems by reviewing complaints, interviewing employees, conducting surveys or distributing questionnaires; and
4. Develop a written ergonomics policy that sets forth:

• procedures for joint evaluation of the extent and cause of any work-related ergonomic issues and to make improvements in job design;
• procedures for providing ergonomics training in order to prevent or minimize MSDs; and
• incentives for employees to report early symptoms of MSDs.
  

Because many companies don’t have the in-house expertise to provide the necessary training to comply with the measure, they would have to hire outside vendors at great additional cost.

And ergonomics is just a small part of the safety and health issues in today’s workplaces. The bill would place enormous emphasis on ergonomics — putting safety and health committees in the uncomfortable position of having to spend less time on more critical issues.

Connecticut employers want to rely on the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics (NACE) for guidance.

A similar measure to HB-5740 was discarded by the Appropriations Committee three years ago after the committee learned of its high fiscal impact.

For more information, contact CBIA’s Bonnie Stewart at 869-244-1900 or stewartb@cbia.com.