LANSING – The head of a business advocacy group charged that the state deliberately shopped around a study of potential ergonomic standards in order to guarantee a favorable report, but the head of the state’s occupational safety and health office denied that charge, saying the company that got the project was the only one that bid for it.

The study was contracted to Ruth Ruttenberg and Associates of Vermont. The study is intended to determine the potential impact of a controversial set of proposed rules requiring companies use ergonomic standards.

Such studies are required under the state’s procedure for revising administrative rules. Doug Kalinowski, director of MIOSHA, said such studies are typically conducted in-house, but officials felt there were no economists on staff with the background to conduct the study.

Charles Owen, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, accused the state of deliberately seeking an outside consultant so it could get a positive review of the controversial proposal.

Work on the rules has occupied nearly seven years of review and controversy. Business groups have stridently fought the proposals.

Ruttenberg has written studies that back health and safety regulations, Owen said. He charged that she is a labor activist and that the selection of her firm guarantees the state would get the result it wanted from the study.

“I’ve got to believe there are qualified people in Michigan who could do this,” Owen said. “If I were shopping for a pre-determined result this is who I would go to.”

But Kalinowski said none of the qualified people in Michigan who could have done the study entered a bid. MIOSHA even made sure a number of consultants that do studies knew the state was looking for bidders on the project, he said.

In the end, Ruttenberg’s firm was the only company to bid for the project, he said, and her firm met the qualifications as a bidder for the state. “There was no competition,” he said. “We didn’t tell people not to bid.”

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