Committee rejects ergonomics bill

(April 28, 2006) The legislature’s Insurance Committee has rejected a bill that would have given some employees in Connecticut the responsibility to write company ergonomics policies, investigate worker complaints and make judgments on complex medical questions. Rejected by a committee vote of 6-11 (with two members absent), HB-5740 applied to companies with 100 or more employees in Connecticut and their safety committees.

The bill had been modified to prohibit committee members from examining medical records in ways that would violate federal privacy law. But the Insurance Committee correctly understood that most safety and health committees are composed of a mix of management and staff who have little or no expertise in ergonomics — people who would be overwhelmed by the new responsibilities as outlined in HB-5740. And because many companies don’t have the in-house expertise to provide the necessary training to comply with HB-5740, they would have had to hire outside vendors at great additional cost.

What’s more, 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 other, more critical issues.

Connecticut employers instead prefer to rely on the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics (NACE) for guidance. NACE, which includes representatives of labor, industry, academia, labor, legal and the medical professions, drew up a series of recommendations addressing ergonomics in America’s workplaces. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is periodically issuing industry-specific guidelines, based on NACE’s work, that will accelerate the decline of musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace.

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