Ergonomic Solutions May Actually Save Firms Money

They call themselves the Coalition for Common Sense and they want to repeal California's ergonomic regulations, which they say could end up costing businesses billions of dollars.

In case you missed it, those regulations went into effect in July.

And in case you also missed this, small businesses with nine or fewer employees--previously exempt from the regulations--are now subject to them, thanks to a decision nearly three weeks ago by a Sacramento Superior Court judge.

The language and instructions on when these smallest of businesses will be included are yet to come. Meanwhile, the judge's decision is likely to be appealed by both organized labor, which wants stricter standards, and business groups, which want no standard at all.

What does all this mean for small businesses?

Very little, say those who actually do hands-on ergonomic work.

Despite a long-standing political battle in Sacramento, a lawsuit that will likely drag on for years to the state Supreme Court and fears that mom-and-pop businesses will now have to extensively remodel their shops, small businesses are likely to remain untouched by the state's ergonomics rules.

That's because the new rules lack teeth, depend on worker complaints for action and are largely unenforceable, said Marianne Brown, director of UCLA's Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Program.

Opposition to the state's ergonomics regulations exists because "it's simply that a precedent is being set and businesses now have to think about ergonomics," Brown said.

Ergonomics--the study of work practices and equipment to avoid worker injury--may sound mysterious, complex and high-tech, but it's as simple as a school janitor attaching a broom handle to a hand-held scraper so that gum can be removed from a standing position instead of on hands and knees.

"A lot of ergonomics is just common sense," said Ira Janowitz, an ergonomics consultant with UC San Francisco.

But the California Trucking Assn., the California chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business and a number of school districts, trade groups and individual companies--more than 350 in all--believe common sense is on their side and have appropriated the name for their coalition.

They object to state regulations that require business owners to take remedying steps if two or more workers doing the same task are injured in the same year.

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