A department spokesman, Keith Mellis, said the order was issued to enhance worker safety, and to elevate the public image of the department's 6,900 uniformed employees.
Although greater specialization "would appear to enhance worker productivity, it has had a deleterious effect on the musculoskeletal system which has to support the work," she said.
After the explosion, the company added, Foxconn immediately halted work in all polishing workshops, and later improved ventilation and dust disposal, and adopted technologies to enhance worker safety.
This inward orientation constrains the economy because it becomes difficult and costly to enhance worker productivity using new 'foreign' technologies and innovations.
Although, NIOSH is not a regulatory agency, its scientists enhance worker safety and health by conducting industry-wide studies to assess workplace hazards, by going into the field to investigate directly any specific hazards reported to it by workers, unions, or management, and by conducting relevant basic scientific research.
They enhanced worker empowerment through education, leadership training, and service provision.
These tools expand the capability of machines both to work autonomously and to enhance worker productivity.
One of the ways governments can enhance worker productivity is by investing in skills training, health services and education.
The recent IWPR report suggests that there is broad support across political parties to support policies that would develop "high-quality jobs, provide greater workplace support for workers with families to care for, and enhance worker rights".
It would require a discourse and a policy agenda that prioritizes the needs of working class and poor people: affordable education and health care, enhanced worker bargaining power, and a commitment to full employment.
