Vol. 32 - Page 2 December 2000
For your customers, it means added overhead- educational costs, workers’ time side tracked from production and developing an employee who will become more litigation savvy and adversarial.

Understanding what will be required from the employer: (I have taken this synopsis from PMMI Report 12/2000 – the comments are mine – in Italics):
1. The company must educate the employees regarding
  1. Common MSD’s, their signs and symptoms. - This is planting the scam seeds.
  2. The importance of reporting MSD’s ASAP. – But reporting (regardless of magnitude, validity or severity) automatically starts ratching the employer into high levels of costs, time and OSHA involvement.
  3. Reporting MSD procedures
  4. Risk factors as well as job and work activities associated with MSD hazards. This is the "Pandora’s Box" which is the lawyers’, MSD consultants’/trainers’ and shop stewards’ dream. The employer is pointing out everything, which may or may not be a potential problem.
  5. A brief description of OSHA’s Ergonomic Standard. You can look at all 600+ pages on OSHA’s web site.
A single dimple on Chad can unleash unending controversy and interpretation – just read these pages – very carefully. When an MSD has been reported and determined if it is an incident, an MSD is work related (All back occurrences are viewed as "work related" by Government supported studies), and requires days away from work, restricted work, or medical treatment beyond first aid, or the signs or symptoms last for seven or more consecutive days after reporting.


2. Remember stress is a workers comp claim in 50% of the states and 25% of America’s workers claim excess stress. Stress can be tied to MSD. The employer must also determine if this occurrence is an "Action Trigger", i.e. one or more of the Five Ergonomic Risk Factors
  1. Repetition,
  2. Force,
  3. Awkward postures,
  4. Contact stress,
  5. Vibration.
If the job exposes the employee to any of these (2 incidents in an 18-month period) then a full-blown Ergonomics Program must be implemented.

OSHA estimates this will cost American business only $4.5 billion/year. Other studies indicate $90 billion/year. If Medicare is any indication of Government’s cost prognostication skills, multiply these numbers by a factor of ten.

If your customers do not start buying robots to eliminate lower back, carpal tunnel and strain/sprain risks; they are gambling their companies’ future on the roll of the dice thrown by the hand of greed and fraud.


Season’s Greetings and have a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Sincerely,
Dwight Carey
Managing Member
American Productivity Group, LLC, 224 Passaic Ave., Fairfield, NJ 07004-3581
 Phone: 973-244-1995     Fax: 973-244-9020     E-mail: info@apgllc.com     Dwight Carey, Managing Member