Vote Allows Osha Rules On Repetitive Stress Injuries Republican Leaders Defeated In Workplace Regulation Fight

In a defeat for Republican leaders trying to reduce federal regulation of business, the House voted Thursday to allow the government to issue guidelines on repetitive stress injuries, the nation’s fastest-growing workplace health problem.

The House voted 216-205 to drop a GOP-backed provision that would have prohibited the Occupational Health and Safety Administration from developing “ergonomic” standards to help protect workers against such injuries.

Thirty-five Republicans, mostly moderates from the North, crossed party lines to vote to drop the ban. The measure also would have forbidden OSHA to collect information on repetitive stress injuries.

OSHA estimates that 800,000 to 2.7 million cases of repetitive stress injuries arise each year, a tenfold increase over the last decade, agency spokesman Stephen Gaskill said. The most common type is carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful wrist condition. Those most likely to be afflicted are keyboard operators, assembly-line workers and others engaged in repetitive motion in the workplace.

The vote came during House debate on a $66 billion social spending bill that provides $7.9 billion less than the White House wants for education, health and other popular domestic programs.

The White House has threatened to veto the bill, even though the Republican cuts are modest compared to the politically explosive reductions GOP members attempted to make in social programs last year.

The bill would essentially freeze spending for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education at 1996 levels, and provide increases for selected programs such as biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health. The bill did not include many of the most controversial anti-abortion and other social-policy riders included in the measure last year, when GOP conservatives were still enjoying momentum from the sweeping Republican victory in the 1994 congressional elections.

However, the measure does address a litany of conservative social concerns. It calls for stepped-up enforcement of laws denying illegal immigrants most benefits of federal social programs - and cuts off benefits for some programs for which they still qualify. It also would eliminate funding for Goals 2000, President Clinton’s signature education reform program.

The House vote on ergonomics was hailed by Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich, who called it “good government plain and simple.”

“If injuries are occurring in the workplace, it’s up to the Labor Department to find a way to prevent them,” said Reich. “That’s our job.”

The House vote clears the way for OSHA to resume work on guidelines that was interrupted last year when Congress enacted a law that prohibited the agency from putting forth guidelines or standards on repetitive stress injuries.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sponsor of the amendment to kill the ergonomics ban, estimated that workers’ compensation costs arising from such injuries total about $20 billion a year.

“The spirit of my amendment was to protect workers, protect business and to improve productivity,” Pelosi said. “Ignoring the fastest growing workplace health problem will not make it go away.”

However, the ban on guidelines was supported by trucking companies and other business interests who had complained that action by OSHA would have forced them to launch costly evaluations that would have been particularly burdensome for small businesses.