INTOUCH – Don’t Wear Workers Out

The claim numbers and costs for OOS conditions are increasing annually, according to ACC workplace injury prevention programme manager Lorraine Gardner Wood.
“There are almost 80,000 workplace injury claims in New Zealand each year and costs associated with gradual process injuries, also know as OOS or RSI, are huge. In New Zealand, these amount to more than $28 million year,” Gardner Wood, who is also president of the New Zealand Ergonomics Society, says. These costs escalate if long-term OOS has been initially ignored.
Janelle Aitken from Auckland-based consultancy Ergodesign says poor office equipment and set-ups can cause range of problems from mild discomfort through to disability.
“In some cases people can develop symptoms after only few days; in others an injury may take months or even years to develop.”
She says both employers and government accident agencies can save themselves great deal of money by addressing ergonomics in the office. She has teamed with Microsoft to promote its new ergonomic wireless keyboard and mouse recently released in New Zealand. Microsoft, which employs more than 200 in-house designers, ergonomists and testers, has been researching this area for over 20 years. Its research shows that individual performance increases 25 percent when employees use an ergonomically designed workstation.