ERGONOMICS: AFL-CIO Fact Sheet

 After more than 10 years of struggle against ferocious industry attacks and millions of disabling injuries to workers, OSHA issued its final ergonomics standard Nov. 13. The standard will requireemployers to reduce workplace ergonomic hazards, which injure and cripple more than 600,000 workers each year. Ergonomic hazards are the nation's No. 1 job safety problem.

The lives of workers who suffer from such musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis and back injuries are changed forever. Many are crippled by debilitating wrist, shoulder or back pain. These workers often lose their jobs and many become permanently unemployed or are forced to take severe pay cuts to continue working. OSHA's new ergonomics standard will help prevent these tragedies.

OSHA's final standard has simplified who is covered by applying the rule to employers in general industry. The standard does not apply to employers in the construction, maritime, agricultural and railroad industries.

Employers with existing ergonomics programs may continue to follow them instead of the requirements of the rule if the programs are written and provide for management leadership, employee participation, job hazard analysis and control, training of managers, supervisors and employees and program evaluation. Within one year of the effective date of the standard, these employers must provide the MSD management and work restriction protections set forth in the standard. Employers with existing programs must be able to demonstrate that their programs are effective in addressing MSDs and MSD hazards.

Employers in general industry must provide workers with basic information on MSDs, including MSD signs and symptoms, the importance of early reporting of MSDs, how workers can report MSDs and their signs and symptoms at the workplace, the risk factors associated with MSD hazards and a summary of the requirements of OSHA's ergonomics standard.

Employers are required to take further action whenever a worker reports an MSD or signs or symptoms of an MSD. After a worker report, employers must determine whether the worker has a work-related MSD incident if exposure to ergonomic risk factors on the worker's job meets an Action Trigger. Employers only have to respond when workers have a work-related MSD incident. The standard does not require employers to take proactive, preventive measures to address MSD hazards in the absence of an injury. Action Triggers are defined as exposures to risk factors——repetition, force, awkward postures, contact stress and vibration——meeting specified durations or frequencies that are identified by using a Basic Screening Tool checklist.

When an injured worker's job has exposures that meet the Action Trigger for any risk factor, the employer must take additional steps. The employer must 1) implement the management leadership and employee participation provisions; 2) provide MSD management to injured workers; 3) analyze the job to determine whether MSD hazards are present; 4) control MSD hazards; and 5) provide training to workers. Employers must ensure they have no policies or practices that discourage workers from reporting MSDs or their signs or symptoms or from participating in the ergonomics program.

When an MSD incident has been reported with exposures to risk factors meeting the Action Trigger, the job involved and similar jobs must receive a job hazard analysis to determine whether there is an MSD hazard to workers. Problem jobs identified with MSD hazards must be controlled by eliminating the hazard, reducing the exposure to MSD hazards to levels that do not pose a hazard or reducing the MSD hazard to the extent feasible. Controls include engineering, work practice and administrative measures. Personal protective equipment, provided at no cost to the worker, can be used to supplement other controls.

Employers may use a Quick Fix for jobs that meet the Action Trigger instead of setting up a full ergonomics program if workers have had no more than one MSD incident in any problem job and no more than two MSD incidents in the entire workplace in the past 18 months. When using Quick Fix, employers must make MSD management available to the injured worker and, within 90 days, control the MSD hazards in the job to levels of exposure below that which do not present an MSD hazard found in the job hazard analysis.

Employers must provide prompt medical management for workers with MSDs in jobs where exposures meet the Action Trigger. This includes access to a health care professional and work restrictions or temporary removal from work if determined necessary by the employer or health care provider. Workers having any limitations on their work activities receive Work Restriction Protection. Workers on temporary work restrictions will maintain their full (100 percent) earnings, rights and benefits for up to 90 calendar days. Workers temporarily removed from work will maintain their full rights and benefits, and at least 90 percent of their earnings, for up to 90 calendar days. Workers may seek a second opinion from a health care provider, and a three-provider review process is included in the standard to resolve medical management disputes.

The employer must provide initial training and follow-up training every three years to workers in jobs that meet or exceed the Action Trigger, to supervisors and to other employees involved in setting up the ergonomics program. Training must address the requirements of the standard, the employer's ergonomics program and the workers' role in it, MSD signs and symptoms, risk factors and MSD hazards in the employees' jobs, control measures and the plan and timetable for addressing identified MSD hazards.

Employers must evaluate their ergonomics program at least every three years to make sure it is effective at identifying and reducing MSD hazards. Employees and their representatives must be consulted in the evaluation process.

Employers with 11 or more employees must maintain records of employee reports of MSDs, MSD signs and symptoms and MSD hazards, responses to such reports, job hazard evaluations, hazard control measures, program evaluations and medical management records. Records, except health care professionals' opinions, must be provided upon request to employees and their representatives under the terms of OSHA's Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records rule. Records must be maintained for three years or until replaced by updated records, except for health care providers' opinions, which must be maintained for the duration of the employee's employment plus three years.

OSHA's ergonomics standard becomes effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Eleven months after publication, employers must comply with the requirement to provide information to employees. After that date, employers must respond to employee reports of MSD incidents according to the following time frames:

• Determination of Action Trigger——7 calendar days
• MSD Management——7 calendar days after job meets Action Trigger
• Management Leadership/Employee Participation——30 calendar days after job meets Action Trigger
• Train On Program Setup——45 calendar days after job meets Action Trigger
• Job Hazard Analysis——60 calendar days after job meets Action Trigger
• Implement Initial Controls——90 calendar days after job meets Action Trigger
• Train Current Employees——90 calendar days after job meets Action Trigger
• Implement Permanent Controls——2 years after job meets Action Trigger, except that initial compliance can take up to four years and 60 days after the date of publication, whichever is later
• Program Evaluation——3 years after job meets Action Trigger

Prepared by: AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department, November 2000.