The Bush administration yesterday released its first set of guidelines to reduce workplace injuries in a particular industry, recommending ways for nursing homes to reduce their unusually high injury rate.þþAdministration officials said the guidelines were part of a broad new effort to protect workers from musculoskeletal disorders, coming after a Republican-led Congress, backed by President Bush, repealed a tough ergonomics law two years ago.þþLabor groups denounced the new guidelines as weak and a step backward, while business groups applauded the guidelines, which are voluntary.þþThe guidelines advise nursing homes to minimize the number of times that nursing home workers lift patients manually and illustrate 22 options to avoid injuries from strenuous or repetitive motions.þþÿNursing home workers are suffering too many ergonomics-related injuries,ÿ said John Henshaw, the assistant secretary of labor who runs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. ÿBut the experiences of many nursing homes provide a basis for taking action now to better protect these workers.ÿþþUnions said the guidelines would do far less to protect workers than the repealed law, which was the culmination of a decade of lobbying by labor. þþAndrew L. Stern, president of the nation's largest union of health-care workers, the Service Employees International Union, said, ÿNursing home work is so crippling that safety guidelines need to be mandatory, not voluntary.ÿþþThere was no incentive for employers to follow the guidelines, Mr. Stern said.þþIndustry groups said the guidelines were a significant improvement over draft guidelines circulated last summer. The new guidelines contain strong language making it clear that they are advisory and impose no new legal requirements. That language will make it harder for injured workers or their unions to successfully sue nursing homes for failing to follow the guidelines. þþÿThey're good guidelines,ÿ said Janice Zalen, an occupational safety expert at the American Health Care Association, which represents 12,000 nursing homes. ÿI think they took seriously our concerns and incorporated our concerns. They're a good deal.ÿþþþ
Source: NY Times
