
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 22, 1994                   TAG: 9411230037
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO                                 LENGTH: Medium

CALIF. BOARD REJECTS REGULATION ON REPETITIVE-TASK INJURIES

A state board on Thursday unanimously rejected a proposed rule designed to protect California's workers from crippling injuries caused by repetitive tasks such as computer or assembly-line work.

In voting unanimously to defeat the regulation, its members, all Republican appointees, defied a state law requiring them to create a new standard by Jan 1.

The decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board was a crushing setback for worker advocates and union leaders who have worked for nearly a decade to win an ergonomic standard in California. The decision was an unexpected victory for the business community, which, until a few months ago, expected to have to comply with a major new regulation.

California is the first state in the nation to try to regulate what has been described as a national epidemic. Cumulative trauma disorders caused by mini-traumas over time to the musculoskeletal system now account for 62 percent of industrial illnesses nationally, up from 18 percent in 1981.

The vote here is sure to hinder work by federal regulators to develop a similar national standard. The regulators, now facing a Republican-controlled Congress, had counted on a California standard to bolster their effort.

Until Thursday, worker advocates had criticized the proposal as too weak. Realizing the tide had turned against any regulation, Maggie Robbins, a leader in the worker advocacy coalition WorkSafe, gave a reluctant endorsement to the proposal moments before the board rejected it.

The proposal applied to all of the state's estimated 860,000 employers and their workers. The regulation would have required employers to take steps toward an ``ergonomic'' workplace, one in which equipment is designed to fit the worker and prevent injuries.

Jere W. Ingram, chairman of the Standards Board, said the proposal was overly broad and would have imposed an undue hardship on employers. Other board members cited the cost for small business, widespread criticism about the rule in both the labor and business communities and doubts about the scientific basis for a standard.

The decision will have a particularly significant impact in Silicon Valley, where tens of thousands of workers use computers.

by CNB