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Labor Secretary Chao Answers Question About Withdrawn Ergonomics Rule |
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In testimony before Congress on April 26, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao explains the Bush Administration's reasons for rescinding the November 2000 Ergonomics. She characterized the one-year gap between the proposed and final rules as too short for an issue of this complexity. "Within that same 12-month period, OSHA received over 11,000 written comments on this rule, making up 188,547 pages." As a result of this haste, OSHA relied on outside contractors to assist in the review, implying that the government may not have adequately considered stakeholder comments. The discrepancy between OSHA's and "private sector" estimates for the implementation costs were also a major factor in rescinding the rule, approaching $100 billion. Secretary Chao recognized that musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) represent one-third of all workplace injury, and believes that a new rule may be warranted, but that it requires that stakeholders "find more common ground on this issue," suggesting that more "discussion and information" is required. OSHA's guiding principles in the development new rulemaking are:
A complete transcript of her testimony before Congress is available on the OSHA web site.
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