July 15, 1997

CALIFORNIA'S NEW REPETITIVE STRESS RULES

Edited by Bob Arnold

In a change that could affect millions of U.S. workers and their employers, California has unveiled new ergonomic standards for combating job-related repetitive stress injury (RSI).

RSI -- also called repetitive motion injury, or RMI -- is a broad classification for injuries sustained as a result of performing the same motion over long periods, as happens with assembly-line work or typing. The disorders can cause severe neck and back strain, and, in the case of carpal tunnel syndrome, debilitating hand injuries. Ergonomics is generally defined as the practice of safely and efficiently integrating a person into a work environment.

The new California rules apply to any company of 10 employees or more, but they take effect only under certain circumstances: At least two employees, doing identical jobs, must be diagnosed with RSI-related injuries within 12 months of each other. Once that happens, the state Occupational Safety & Health Administration requires the company to remedy the cause of the problem and to set up specific prevention and training programs. California's OSHA has the authority to issue fines for companies that fail to do so, which can range from a few hundred dollars per citation to $70,000.

The California rules, which took effect on July 3, are the nation's toughest to date, in that they are the first regulations that specifically target RSI. And because of increasing public awareness of repetitive stress disorders -- especially those tied to computer keyboards -- they could take root in other states and in federal law. "We've cut new ground here that everyone has been watching," says California OSHA spokesman Troy Swauger.

One industry expert predicts that the other 49 states won't rush to adopt their own versions of the rules. "They're going to wait for new federal standards," says Douglas Earle, director of Michigan's Bureau of Safety & Regulation. He notes, however, that California's standards are likely to "influence, in some way, the federal OSHA effort."

Acting federal OSHA Administrator Greg Watchman won't say whether a federal proposal would be directly modeled after California's new rule. But he does suggest that OSHA will fight for the right to levy penalties on companies that ignore the causes of widespread RSIs. "A protective standard is appropriate where employers are not doing enough," Watchman says.

Currently no federal rules directly address ergonomics and RSIs. That's despite Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers showing that in 1994, the most recent year for which data is available, 705,800 workplace injuries or illnesses -- 32% of the total -- were RSI-related. OSHA can presently assess RSI-related fines under a "general duty clause." But a specific rule would grant it much broader regulatory and fining power. It's a rule OSHA is eagerly pursuing, says Watchman. "This is the biggest workplace health problem in America," he adds. Watchman expects to propose a federal ergonomics standard within one year, though he doesn't anticipate approval of a rule until at least 2000.

Any new ergonomic rule stands to have a significant impact on small businesses, especially since few such companies have full-time safety compliance or human resource managers. In California, for example, small companies have complained about the rule's language, which they claim is too vague. Scott Hague, past president of the 11,000-member San Francisco Small Business Network, also says the state has done little to educate businesses. "Human resource managers at major insurance companies didn't know about it until we called them," Hague says. "This is one more law that we've got on us that we don't know how to comply with."

Still, Dr. Robert Harrison, a clinical professor in occupational medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, contends that small businesses need to take special action for fighting employee RSIs. "Large employers are ahead of the curve on this," he says. "These rules will be more important for the small businesses than the large ones."

Click here to view a copy of California's new RSI rule.

By Dennis Berman in New York