The Detroit News. The ergonomics rules, which took effect during President Clinton's last week in office, generally require job conditions and work stations to be tailored to help workers avoid ailments afflicting the muscles, nerves, joints, cartilage, blood vessels or spinal discs. Republicans in Congress aim to revoke new federal ergonomics rules potentially affecting millions of workers.
Business groups complain the regulations impose needless, costly burdens on employers.
Potentialy affecting millions of workers, the rules represent the first attempt to establish broad federal standards for making workplaces ergonomically sensitive. Debate on the regulatory rollback will start next week in the Senate, GOP congressional aides said Friday, with a vote possible by Wednesday. During the 2000 campaign, Bush said he believed the federal government should focus on providing information about ergonomics programs but resist issuing mandates. A White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, on Friday said only that the ergonomics rules are under review. Republicans on Capitol Hill say blocking the regulations will save businesses from potentially bewildering and costly efforts to meet imprecise standards.