§ 1304. WORKSTATION STANDARDS.

(a) Within 12 months of the effective date of this Article 23, every employer, when purchasing VDT workstations or equipment, shall provide an operator who may be expected because of the employee's duties to routinely perform repetitive keyboard motions four hours or more, inclusive of breaks, per shift, with user-adjustable workstations and chairs that meet the following minimum standards:

(1) Seating for the workstation shall conform to the provisions of the American National Standard for Human Factors Engineering of Visual Display Terminal Workstations, ANSI/SFS Standard No. 100-1988, Section 8.7 "Seating," or meet the requirements of Subsections (a)(1)(A) through (a)(1)(D) as follows:

(A) Seat pans and backrests of chairs shall be upholstered with moisture absorbing material. The upholstery shall be compressible at a minimum in the range of approximately one-half to one inch.

(B) Seat pans shall be adjustable for height and angle.

(C) Backrests shall be adjustable for height and to a position behind and forward of the vertical position.

(D) Chairs shall be capable of being swivelled by the user.

(2) Arm rests, wrist rests and foot rests shall be provided upon the request of the operator. Wrist rests shall enable the operator to maintain a neutral position of the wrist while at the keyboard, and shall be padded and without sharp edges.

(3) The adjustment mechanism for adjustable chair seat pans shall be operable by the user from a seated position. The adjustment mechanism for adjustable chair backrests shall be easily operable by the user.

(4) The keyboard shall be detachable from the terminal.

(5) The terminal display support shall be adjustable so that the entire primary viewing area of the terminal is between zero and 60 degrees below the horizontal plane passing through the eyes of the operator. The terminal keyboard, in combination with the seating and the worksurface, shall be adjustable so that the operator, while seated in a normal, upright position, is able to operate the keyboard with his or her forearms, wrists and hands in a position approximately parallel to the floor. The height of the worksurface shall be such as to provide adequate clearance under the worksurface to accommodate the operator's legs in a normal upright seated position.

(b) Within 12 months of the effective date of this Article 23, every employer, when purchasing VDT workstations or equipment, shall provide an operator who may be expected because of the employee's duties to use video display terminal equipment four hours or more, inclusive of breaks, per shift, with a workstation that meets the following minimum standards:

(1) Workstations shall be illuminated with lights arranged to avoid visual glare and discomfort. The illumination level shall be within 200 - 500 lux. Task lighting shall be made available upon the request of the operator.

(2) Glare shall be eliminated through methods that include but are not limited to shielding windows with shades, curtains or blinds, positioning the terminal so that the terminal screen is at a right angle to the window producing the glare, fitting video display screens with anti-glare screens and providing keyboards with tops finished in a manner so as to minimize reflection.

(3) A document holder adjustable for placement angle and height shall be provided upon the request of the operator when a document holder is appropriate for the performance of the operator's duties.

(4) Video display screens shall be clean, clear, and free of perceptible flicker to the operator.

(5) Direct noise from impact printers shall be reduced to improve ease of communication by placing covers over the printers or by isolating the printers from the rest of the work environment.

(c) As used in this Article, "routinely perform repetitive keyboard motions" shall not be interpreted to include only brief, intermittent keyboard motions that are ancillary to the employee's performance of other work tasks.

(d) Within 30 months of the effective date of this Article 23, every employer shall (1) upgrade existing VDT workstations and equipment that the employer provides to any operator, as defined in Section 1304(a), as necessary to comply with the minimum standards specified in Section 1304(a)(1) through (a)(5); and (2) upgrade existing VDT workstations and equipment that the employer provides to any operator, as defined in Section 1304(b), as necessary to comply with the minimum standards specified in Section 1304(b)(1) through (b)(5); provided, however, that the upgrading required by Sections 1304(a) and (b) combined shall not require the employer to expend more than $250 per upgraded VDT workstation.

(e) Within 48 months of the effective date of this Article 23, for any existing equipment, every employer shall (1) upgrade or replace VDT workstations and equipment that the employer provides to any operator, as defined in Section 1304(a), as necessary to comply with the minimum standards specified in Section 1304(a)(1) through (a)(5); and (2) upgrade or replace VDT workstations and equipment that the employer provides to any operator, as defined in Section 1304(b), as necessary to comply with the minimum standards specified in Section 1304(b)(1) through (b)(5).

(Added by Ord. 405-90, App. 12/27/90; amended by Ord. 17-91, App. 1/18/91)