Workers' comp for RSI-related injuries more costly overall

Nation's Restaurant News, June 13, 2005 by Milford Prewitt

Ergonomics-related stress injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, are relatively minuscule in number when stacked up against the foodservice industry's otherwise-lengthy tally of injuries from slipping or falling--the leading cause of lost hours and insurance claims for restaurants.

But when the costs for time off from work and medical care for repetitive stress injuries, or RSIs, are stacked up against all other employee injuries, the price tag for motion-based maladies tops the list.

Indeed, new research from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and annual updates by prominent insurance research groups that track workers' compensation claims show that muscle- or bone-related workplace injuries--including conditions involving arthritis and tendonitis--are responsible for huge and growing costs, despite the comparatively low incidence rate of RSIs as compared with workplace accidents.

However, the new data also suggest that the foodservice industry may be faring better than other industries in terms of the overall trend in numbers of RSI-related injuries.

Nonetheless, research into the problem has raised red flags for restaurateurs. For example, while some young workers appear to be just as likely to suffer ergonomics-based pain and even arthritis from repeated actions on the job, a typical restaurant workeraged 45 or older poses far higher costs for such disorders in terms of lost time and more expensive courses of treatment.

Moreover, insurers, medical professionals and others who study ergonomics--the science of creating and designing work environments in which humans can work safely and without pain--suggest that the costs related to motion-stress claims, arthritis and tendonitis could offset gains being realized from declines in the number of workers" compensation claims for accidental injuries.

"This could be pretty big," said Myles Share of Myles Share & Associates, a commercial insurance broker whose clients mainly are high-end hospitality operators in New York City.

"Although carpal tunnel, arthritis and the like are not very prevalent in the industry right now, they do pay off the most in terms of surgery costs and sick days off," Share said. "Right now what we are seeing is just a few claims from some older workers who chop or dice carrots all day [and are] getting a couple of days off [for recuperation]. But this could be huge later on."

When it comes to carpal tunnel and arthritislike pain symptoms. Share noted, diagnoses often lead to joint repair or replacement surgery and months, not days, off from work.

According to the National Council on Compensation Insurance, whose researchers examine workers' compensation claim trends in about 20 states, claims for carpal tunnel syndrome accounted for just 2 percent of all lost-time workplace injuries in 2003--the latest year for which figures are available. But such injuries accounted for $1 billion in workers' compensation claim benefits, or about an average of $20,000 each, over an 18-month period, the NCCI indicated.

And according to the Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index, the NCCI's figures may be too low.

Repetitive-motion injuries cost all employers about $2.8 billion in 2002 and were the fourth leading cause of all injuries that year, the newly released study by insurer Liberty Mutual said.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one out of every 10,000 foodservice workers took at least one day off from work because of musculoskeletal pain or an RSI complaint in 2003. That compares with the reported three out of every 100 restaurant workers who took at least one day off to recover from a slip or fall injury.

For an industry that is second only to the government in total number of employees, the 12.2-million-worker foodservice sector still boasts the distinction of having one of the safest work environments in the national economy, the National Restaurant Association often points out.

In 2002, for example, fewer than five out of every 100 foodservice workers took a day or more off because of a workplace injury, such as a slip and fall, a cut or a burn, and that marked a major decline from the 8.5 out of every 100 who did so in 1992. By comparison, nursing-home and air transportation workers in 2002 racked up injuries that caused at least a day off work for 12 out of every 100 employees.

But while the occupational hazards of slips and falls, cuts, burns and back sprains from poor lifting techniques have been well documented and researched in foodservice, there has been a relative dearth of such ergonomics studies into the occupational hazards of musculoskeletal injury from repetitive motion and the degree to which working conditions in commercial kitchens can aggravate arthritis and tendonitis.

One reason for that, according to spokespersons for such major brands as Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday, Lettuce Entertain You, Burger King, IHOP and others, is the sheer rarity of such reported injuries.

"We just don't see it happening," said Laurie Ellison, a spokeswoman for Applebee's, after conferring with the dinner-house company's risk managers and human-resource officials.