Legislative Background
Recent Congressional Action on Ergonomics
For the last decade, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been working on regulations to prevent injuries caused by improper ergonomic job design. In Fiscal Years (FY) 1995, 1996, and 1998, however, Congress attached riders to Labor Department appropriations bills to prohibit the agency from issuing a final ergonomics standard.In 1997, many Members of Congress proposed the suspension of further work on the rulemaking until independent research institutions could report on the state of scientific knowledge of ergonomics. These Members argued that such a review was needed to counter what they charged was a bias interpretation of existing…
