As yet another heatwave roasts parts of the country — in California, temperatures could hit the mid-90s even in normally temperate San Francisco — President Biden’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced proposed federal heat protections for workers.
While some states, including California, have long had rules to keep outdoor workers cool on the job,the proposal is the first national effort to keep workers both indoor and out safe in an ever-hotter climate.
“The purpose of this rule is simple: to significantly reduce the number of injuries, illnesses and deaths suffered by workers subject to excessive heat while simply doing their jobs,” a Biden official told reporters.
However, the proposed rule would not go into effect until 2026 at the earliest. And it is another White House climate-related initiative that could quickly be undone if former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, wins in November.
Nevertheless, the proposal is historic, and would apply to workers across all 50 states, including Florida and Texas, where state laws ban similar worker protections. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that the rule would protect as many 36 million workers, both at indoor and outdoor jobs. That includes not only farm labor and construction workers, but also mail carriers, delivery people and warehouse and logistics employees — all sectors that rely on a significant number of Black employees.
The rule includes a number of new ideas, like a heat-acclimation period for new employees (most heat-related incidents occur in the first weeks at a new job) and the introduction of heat safety coordinators at workplaces. But most of what will keep workers safe is more straightforward: access to shade, water, and air conditioning, and mandatory breaks during periods of extreme heat.
Under the rule, there will be two heat-index thresholds — 80 and 90 degrees — at which different cooling requirements will kick in. When indoor or outdoor workplace temperatures pass 80 degrees employers will be required to provide water and climate-controlled break areas. At or above a heat index (or “feels like” temperature, which accounts for the humidity level) of 90 degrees, employers must also include mandatory 15-minute breaks every two hours and monitor employees for signs of heat-related illnesses.
While workplace safety advocates applaud the rule, there is some sense that it’s coming too late. According to OSHA, there have been 815 heat-related deaths of workers over the past 25 years, but that is almost universally understood to be a significant undercount.
“This is a bittersweet moment for farm workers,” Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers union, said in a statement. “Every significant heat safety regulation in America at the state, and now federal, level was written in the blood of farm workers. Every year farm workers are killed by heat – with known deaths likely drastically outnumbered by the unknown, uncounted deaths.”
It also comes too late for Eugene Gates Jr. a Black postal worker who died on the job in Dallas, Texas, during a hot day last summer. And it can’t help so many other workers who died when the job got too hot.
