Members tell OSHA need is great for proposed ergonomics standard
Don’t let your job be a pain in the neck

By KISHA JEGEDE
Aching pain, tingling fingers, tenderness, swelling, loss of joint movement — is this how you feel at work?
Is your job putting your health at risk?

For PEF member Lenore Gensburg, these questions came all too late. A statistician for the past 15 years and an employee of the state Health Department for 12 years, Gensburg was diagnosed with repetitive-stress injury in 1996.

“Approximately eight years ago, I first experienced pain which increased until I could no longer rotate my neck,” Gensburg told a packed hearing room in Washington, D.C. recently. “My symptoms had reached the point where I could not raise my arms, nor turn my neck — causing problems in dressing myself.”

PEF urges OSHA standard
Gensburg was among five PEF representatives who testified in April at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) fact-finding hearings in Washington.

After 10 years of study, consultation and analysis, OSHA announced a proposed ergonomics standard that is expected to spare 300,000 workers from painful, potentially disabling injuries and save the U.S. economy $9 billion each year.
If the OSHA standard is adopted, employers will have to establish ergonomics programs to prevent musculoskeletal disorders by fitting the job to the worker. For instance, a nurse whose job requires lifting patients would be taught how to perform the task safely to prevent injury.

Although OSHA’s proposed standard is a big step toward protecting PEF members, union leaders say it is not without flaws.

“The standard would only apply to employees working in manual handling jobs, manufacturing jobs, and where musculoskeletal disorders are reported,” PEF Health and Safety Director Jonathan Rosen said.

So, what happens to employees who have administrative, clerical, supervisory/managerial or professional and technical jobs?

If the OSHA ergonomic standard is enacted, members whose jobs involve heavy computer use will only be covered after a repetitive-strain injury has been documented in the workplace. PEF members who perform direct-care services, however, such as nurses, will be covered prior to a documented workplace injury.

Enforcement difficult
PEF leaders worry that without a mandatory standard, ergonomics programs will be difficult
to enforce.

“Without an enforceable OSHA standard on ergonomics, we have found that most state agencies are unable or unwilling to provide the necessary resources such as time, staff or funding to implement a comprehensive ergonomics program,” PEF health and safety trainer Kim Loccisano told the OSHA hearing panel.
Another concern is “the limited resources that unions provide for voluntary programs do not meet the needs to prevent the epidemic of work-related musculoskeletal disorders,” Loccisano added.

In 1996, more than 647,000 workdays were lost due to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. This is a result of workers using repetitive motion, working in awkward positions, repeatedly lifting objects and /or using great force when doing various tasks.

For PEF’s 54,000 public- and private-sector members, job-related injuries are a cause for great concern. Approximately 15,000 PEF members are health-care workers and another 35,000 work mainly in offices.

As these jobs may require employees to lift patients or perform a lot of repetitive office and/or computer work, many members are at risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders.

PEF training to the rescue
PEF’s Health and Safety Department has “Video Display Terminal (VDT) Office Ergonomics Training” and a “Backs for the Future” program to help these members avoid injury.

The VDT program is offered both through direct training and through a train-the-trainer program. The direct training is a two-to-three hour program which focuses on what ergonomics is, why it’s important, how to prevent injuries, the importance of early reporting and medical management and how to start ergonomics programs that work.

The train-the-trainer program provides six to seven hours of training for members who will train others. It has the same objectives but includes additional training on how to use checklists to perform fundamental work-station evaluations.

Backs for the Future is an ergonomic program designed to prevent back injuries among institutional workers.

All of these programs aim to prevent and reduce work-related injuries by educating employees and managers about ergonomic injuries and ways they can identify, modify and eliminate risk factors.

“Whether your job requires patient handling or intense use of computers, your health shouldn’t suffer from doing your job,” Rosen said. “Don’t wait until you’re injured to seek help. Working on a computer six hours a day takes its toll.”
“I wasn’t provided with the equipment or the knowledge to keep myself free of injury,” Gensburg said.

She might have avoided her painful condition if she had understood the importance of taking breaks from her work and making sure her workstation fit her height.

Protect yourself from workplace injuries Call PEF Health and Safety
1-800-342-4306, ext. 254

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