The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed a new regulation that would require many U.S. employers to take steps to protect outdoor workers and certain employees who work indoors from extreme heat.
The proposal from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would require that employers provide workers with water and shaded or air-conditioned areas to take breaks when temperatures at work sites reach 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
At 90 degrees, workers would be guaranteed 15-minute breaks every two hours, and employers would be required to monitor workers for heat-related illness. The rule would also require that when businesses hire new workers, their workload would gradually increase to give them time to adjust to high temperatures.
Private sector employers already have a "general duty" to maintain safe workplaces – a requirement that can include taking steps to mitigate heat-related hazards. However, OSHA's new proposal would establish specific requirements for employers to comply with for the first time, which would allow the agency to take punitive actions against employers accused of violating its requirements.
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"Workers all over the country are passing out, suffering heat stroke and dying from heat exposure from just doing their jobs, and something must be done to protect them," said OSHA head Douglas Parker in a statement.
OSHA's rule doesn't apply to government employers, "sedentary" or remote workers, emergency responders or workers at indoor job sites where temperatures are kept below 80 degrees.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 1,000 workers in the U.S. have died since 1992 as a result of heat exposure. Between 2011 and 2020, there were nearly 34,000 cases where heat-related injuries caused employees to miss work.
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If the rule is finalized, it could face legal challenges from businesses and trade groups that may be bolstered by the Supreme Court's ruling last week that eliminated the so-called Chevron deference, under which courts deferred to regulatory agencies' interpretations of laws giving them authority to regulate a given subject.
The National Association of Manufacturers responded to OSHA's announcement with a post on X, formerly Twitter, that said any federal heat safety standard should be flexible to the needs of individual businesses.
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"Today's rule from OSHA adds to the regulatory onslaught facing manufacturers in America. The NAM continues to call for a heat standard that provides greater flexibility so manufacturers can tailor heat safety operations to the needs of each business," the trade group said.
Just a handful of states have policies in place to protect workers from heat exposure in the workplace, including California, Colorado, Oregon, Minnesota and Washington.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott enacted rules in the last year to prevent local governments within their states from implementing their own heat exposure standards.
