Insurers Battle U.S. Ergonomics Bill
By Steven Brostoff, Washington Editor
NU Online News Service, July 17, 3:55 p.m. EST, Washington?The insurance industry is fighting a new attempt in Congress to require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to promulgate an ergonomics rule.
The Washington-based American Insurance Association is circulating a letter to other industry groups that will be sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee, urging it not to adopt language establishing the mandate in a appropriations bill.
The AIA letter says that adopting the language could severely disrupt the state-based workers' compensation systems.
The controversy involves S. 2184, legislation sponsored by Sen. John Breaux, D-La., that requires OSHA to adopt a new ergonomics rule within two years. Although S. 2184 states that the new OSHA rule may not interfere with actual compensation under state laws, AIA believes that S. 2184 contains ambiguities that could defeat that goal.
The specific problem, AIA said, involves what is called "work restriction protection." AIA said that the way this term is defined in S. 2184, it could be interpreted by OSHA to allow it to mandate specific levels of compensation for ergonomic injuries.
AIA said it has been working with the sponsors of S. 2184 to include a clear prohibition on any rule that conflicts with state workers' compensation laws. However, AIA said, the current language which is part of the appropriations bill, does not effectively address these concerns.
"A federal compensation scheme superimposed over the state workers' compensation system will create a parallel universe of compensation that will effectively federalize the payment of injury compensation," AIA said.
This, AIA said, will be the beginning of the end of the state-based systems' independence.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions recently approved S. 2184 as a standalone bill. Now, the Senate Appropriations Committee is considering attaching S. 2184 to the Fiscal Year 2003 Labor-Health-Education Appropriations bill.
The Appropriations Committee is set to vote on the issue tomorrow.
The ergonomic controversy began in December of 2000, when the Clinton administration promulgated a highly controversial ergonomics rule that, among other things, mandated compensation for ergonomic injuries at 90 percent to 100 percent of wages, compared with the 67 percent mandated by most state workers' compensation statutes.
Congress nullified the rule in early 2001, under a statute called the Congressional Review Act. Since then, OSHA has been under pressure to adopt a new, albeit less extensive, ergonomics rule.
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