John B. Breaux: “The amendment addresses the question of the so-called ergonomics rule, which this body addressed last week, through the…”

“The amendment addresses the question of the so-called ergonomics rule, which this body addressed last week, through the use of a procedure which is not normally utilized, when the Senate of the United States said that a rule that had been promulgated by the Department of Labor would not be allowed to go into effect addressing injuries in the workplace that workers receive which cause them to lose very valuable hours of service, both to themselves and their employers. Those workplace injuries clearly cause a loss to companies and small businesses, as well as the personal loss that is caused to the individual. There was a great deal of concern raised by myself and by some Republican colleagues to the rule because in many cases it would have an adverse effect on the States' workers compensation laws. And they had concerns about the potential that the rule would, in fact, allow injuries to be covered that were not directly related to having been brought about by conditions in the workplace. The third thing I heard a great deal of was that employers really didn't have enough information to know whether they were covered or what were their responsibilities.”