Contagious Back Problems

System

We have a department where there is some physical work involved along with more sedentary/clerical type tasks. There are about 10 people in the department and right now 5 of them have physical work restrictions. We're a library, so physical work means these are the employees who unpack the new books from boxes and prepare them to go out on the shelves. It's definitely physical, but it's not digging ditches or working on a heavy construction site. Nevertheless, you can imagine that the physical part of the job (pushing a pallet server, packing and unpacking books from boxes) is not the most popular. The manager varies the schedule for each employee daily. An employee might work on a physical task for about 2 hours and then work on a more sedentary task for two hours throughout the day. It seems that over the last several months we have gotten to the point where for various reasons (work and non-work related) these folks have found ways to get around the physical tasks and it's killing the department. We have accommodated job duties based upon the doctor's work restrictions. The able bodied employees are starting to resent it and the work of the department is really affected tremendously. Anyone out there have similar experience with the contagious back problems? Any ideas? I'm all ears.

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-03-02 AT 11:55AM (CST)[/font][p]Have you made any occupational health analysis of the physical demands of the job in lifting, reaching, bending etc.? Are you sure the requirements that were originally developed for lifting and other physical labor are still valid?

It sounds as if the physical parts of the job, packing, unpacking and whatever, are not really esdential funcyions since the manager has eliminated them stragith out from some of the individuals jobs rather than trying to figure out other ways of having them do those duties. Maybe that's what a occupational health analysis of the job will help identify?

Only non-essential functions have to be totally eliminated from an individual's job if he or she is unable to do them. Essential functions still need to be done although reasonable accommodation could result in a change in the way they are done, e.g., perhaps with (different) equipment.

Margaret Morford

I agree with Hatchetman above. Get an occupational study done to determine lifting restrictions. However, if the regular job requires that people do 2 hours of this duty a day, it probably is an essential function. Also, back problems is pretty vague. Does it rise to the point of being a disability? If you decide it does, then can you come up with a reasonable accomodation? I do not think having others do an essential function is a reasonable accomodation, unless it's for a limited time only. What you currently have are people on light duty. Do you have a light duty policy? Do you want to offer light duty for non-work related injuries? You should limit the time anyone can stay on light duty. I've got a policy I'll e-mail you if you like.

Last, but not least...I used to work for the largest video tape distributor in the US. We had a lot of contagious back injuries - people who could no longer lift a box of video tapes (about 50 pounds). If their restrictions said 25 pounds, then we instructed them to break open the boxes and put the tapes up in groups. A video tape weighs 6 ounces. It might take them longer, but they got the message that they couldn't get out of the work. It was amazing how many people got released to full duty after that.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
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