Committee Approves OSHA Bill
Washington
A bill mandating that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issue a new rule on ergonomic injuries within two years has been approved by a Senate panel on a party line, 11-10 vote.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved S. 2184 despite concerns from insurers that its language could be construed to allow OSHA to promulgate a rule that conflicts with state workers comp laws.
S. 2184, sponsored by Sen. John Breaux, D-La., says that a new rule should not apply to non-work-related injuries and should not expand state workers comp laws. However, John Savercool, vice president of federal affairs for the Washington-based American Insurance Association, said that the workers comp language is ambiguous. While it may be intended to limit any potential conflict with workers comp, he said, it does not effectively do so.
The issue, he noted, is what is called "work restriction protection," which was part of an earlier ergonomics rule issued by OSHA in the closing days of the Clinton Administration, but tossed out by a vote of Congress. Under WRP, OSHA mandated specific compensation levels for ergonomic injuries, despite existing statutory language barring OSHA from interfering with actual compensation under state workers comp laws, he said.
OSHA, he explained, took the position when it wrote the earlier rule that WRP does not expand the application of workers comp law, but merely supplements it. Under S. 2184, he said, OSHA could take the same position. To clear up any ambiguity, he said, S. 2184 needs to be amended to expressly prohibit OSHA from promulgating an ergonomics rule that has compensation provisions.
Ken Schloman, Washington counsel with the Downers Grove, Ill.-based Alliance of American Insurers, added that the Alliance is also disappointed with the committees action. He said the Alliance supports the position of the Bush administration that any standards should be flexible. The Alliance opposes a "one-size-fits-all" approach, he said.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, June 24, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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