LANSING – Legislation to prohibit the Granholm administration from promulgating rules creating mandatory ergonomics standards and training requirements could come up before the full Senate as early as this week after the Senate Economic Development and Regulatory Reform Committee reported the bill Tuesday.
As reported, the legislation (SB 93 ) would allow the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth to implement voluntary ergonomics rules, but they could be no more stringent than the federal voluntary rules.
Business groups, as they have throughout the rules development process, said the additional requirements on their operations would be devastating financially and could push more businesses under or keep new ones from opening.
DELEG Director Skip Pruss said he had not yet studied the rules or the information supporting their development, but he warned that the bill as drafted could put Michigan at odds with federal law should federal rules once again become mandatory. He said there had not been direct word from the administration of President Barack Obama that the rules would be changed, but he said that was the expectation.
Similar legislation was vetoed during the 2005-06 session and legislation last session was passed by the Senate but never taken up by the House.
The current legislation moved 4-0 with Sen. Gilda Jacobs (D-Huntington Woods) abstaining.
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