February 1, 2001

Ergonomics panel named

TUMWATER -- The state Department of Labor and Industries has announced the members of a new panel that will monitor the implementation of ergonomics rules adopted last May.

The rules require employers to adopt minimum safety requirements to protect employees from work-related injuries like back strain, tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. Such injuries, says L&I, affect 50,000 Washington state workers annually.

The panel members will be charged with making sure that the specific provisions of the ergonomic rules, to be phased in over six years, are understandable. The panel will also monitor enforcement of the rules for fairness and consistency.

The following have been named to the Blue Ribbon Panel on Ergonomics: Co-chair Claude Golden, Boeing Co. attorney; Co-chair Larry Bindner of the Washington and Northern Idaho Council of Laborers; William Anderson, University of Washington law professor; Stewart Burkhammer, Bechtel Corp., Frederick, Md.; Lee Ann Jillings of the Voluntary Protection Plan Participants Association, Falls Church, Va.; Gwen Malone, General Motors, Pontiac. Mich.; James McCauley, Perdue Farms (retired), Willards, Md.; Dr. James A. Merchant, dean of the University of Iowa School of Public Health; Susan Schurman, Meany Center for Labor Studies, Silver Spring, Md.; Pat Tyson, National Safety Council, Atlanta, Ga.; and Dr. David Wegman, University of Massachusetts-Lowell Department of Work Environment.