House bill would bring back rejected ergonomic standards

Michigan employers would have to provide suitable seats for employees or face a $250 fine under a new bill introduced in Lansing.

House Bill 5983, introduced by Dylan Wegela, D-Garden City, would require “employers to provide suitable seats for employees under certain circumstances.”

The Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity could impose a $250 fine for each aggrieved employee covered by the law every two weeks.

The bill specifies ergonomic seating is required “at a location that is owned, leased, or operated by or under the control of the employer.” The bill introduced in September does not stipulate that proper seating would be required for people working at home for a business.

”If you've ever worked a job where you stand for hours on end for no reason, you know how common sense reasonable seating is,” Wegela told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email. He asked why cashiers, for example, must stand when they could do the job seated.

“In an era of stock buy-backs and record corporate profits, I find it hard to believe there are businesses that can’t afford a chair or two for workers who generate their wealth in the first place,” Wegela wrote.

Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm tried to impose ergonomic standards in the early 2000s. The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration formed a working group in 2005 to craft ergonomic rules for businesses.

Congress overturned federal ergonomics regulations in 2001. Implementing them in Michigan would have cost the state’s private sector between $264 and $496 million, according to a 2005 Mackinac Center news story.

In 2010, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder told Michigan Capitol Confidential that the state was ”on the brink of cranking out destructive ergonomics regulations.”

The next year saw legislation to prohibit the state from imposing workplace ergonomic regulations. It died in committee.

This bill was referred to the Committee on Labor.

Michigan’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration discusses ergonomics standards on its website. The agency ”does not have an ergonomic enforcement standard,” the fact sheet says, but it has the authority to enforce state law ”when necessary to prevent workplace-related ergonomic injuries or illnesses.”

The House Fiscal Agency has not analyzed the legislation, so the associated costs for business are unclear.