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At long last RB workers take new seats
by George Wiley
It doesn't sound like that much, the purchase of about 130 office chairs for about $45,000. But for the Redondo Beach employees who will be getting the new seats, it's definitely good news for aching backs, sore fannies and weary arms.
More than getting comfortable employees, Redondo officials hope the new chairs will reduce on-the-job injury claims by more than enough to make buying the chairs a good investment.
In a report to the city council Tuesday night, Personnel Analyst Liscelle Brennan said that improper or inadequate office furniture was estimated to have cost the city as much as $600,000 in worker injuries. Brennan told the council a single such work injury could cost more than $40,000.
Brennan said the city will use a group purchase program available through Los Angeles County to cut the chairs' cost. She also told the council extensive research had shown the chairs from Office Depot were among the best available.
Brennan said a survey by the city found that employees had been sitting for years in worn-out and in some cases broken chairs. Many of the chairs the city was using had been purchased as hand-me-downs from TRW when that aerospace company reduced the number of its employees or changed offices, Brennan said. She said the old TRW chairs by this time often had springs poking up through the upholstery or other ills that made them unpleasant for city employees to use. "I get E-mail messages all the time from people telling me they've never been more comfortable (since the new chairs arrived)," Brennan said. She said one police sergeant was especially grateful, telling her his back was not sore now that his chair had lumbar support.
"Our goal is to be injury preventative and proactive," said Brennan. "Nearly all of our employees who received a chair commented that it was a drastic improvement in comparison with their former chair," Brennan told the council.
Next on the city's upgrade of its furniture list, Brennan said, might be desks, since many desks now in use are too small to accommodate computers and all the devices that go with them. But the desks will have to wait for "future budget years," Brennan told the council.ER