Heat is the leading cause of death among all weather-related phenomena in the United States. Excessive heat exacerbates existing health conditions like asthma, kidney failure, and heart disease, and can cause heat stroke and even death if not treated properly and promptly. Workers in both outdoor and indoor work settings without adequate climate controls are at risk of hazardous heat exposure.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has just moved a step closer to a long-awaited final rule for “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings.” OSHA recently sent the currently unseen rule to the Office of Management and Budget for an interagency review of up to 90 days, after which OSHA will publish the rule in the Federal Register to give it effect.
While we do not know exactly what will be in the rule, yet, the potential regulatory framework OSHA proposed in 2023 on the topic offers some insight into what the rule may contain.
Under the proposal, employers would be required to create and maintain a written Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Program (HIPP). Small employers with up to 10 employees would be exempted from the HIPP requirement. Further, outdoor and indoor work in any or all General Industry, Construction, Maritime, and Agriculture sectors where OSHA has jurisdiction would be covered.
The proposed standard call for employers to identify heat hazards by actively monitoring weather conditions or by measuring the heat index and humidity of the areas where employees are working. Unknown, but precise, conditions or heat metrics may trigger additional obligations on behalf of employers in protecting workers.
A potential silver lining for construction workers: the rule may require outdoor sites to include cool-down areas with fans, shade, mechanical ventilation, or air-conditioned spaces inside trailers, vehicles, and structures used for breaks. This has not been a source of signficant conversation in the Kansas City-area, but heat injuries and illness are a very real factor in this region.
In a highlight for manufacturing or logistics workers, OSHA may soon also require indoor worksites to include designated cool-down areas, increased airflow, and ventilation requirements around fixed heat-generated sources under certain, yet-to-be-revealed conditions or heat metrics. Some of the issues that this new outdoor and indoor heat rule are addressing have been things that unions have been fighting for in contract negotiations. That energy can now be spent on other issues.
OSHA might also require options for employer-provided vehicles or delivery trucks, including air-conditioning or other cooling mechanisms when high heat triggers are reached and when employees spend the majority of their shift working in or from vehicles. This particular bit is likely especially relevant to delivery drivers who have seen rising summer heat as a serious threat in the workplace.
Other potential requirements that should have been obvious and the rule all along include cool water, space for the necessary breaks for water, acclimating new and returning employees to hot conditions, breaks in shaded areas, training for supervisors on spotting signs and symptoms of heat illness, work schedules that factor in or work around high temperatures, and, potentially, personal protective equipment aimed at addressing heat-related symptoms. It is unclear how broad the rule will be applied.
An important note throughout this rule is that much of the burden is applied to employers, not workers. If the employer wants a worker to do work, they need to make sure that work is safe. Why that has not always included heat and humidity is unclear.
Employers may also be required to create and utilize written medical treatment and emergency response plans for when employees experience signs or symptoms of heat stress, illness, or injury. Additionally, under the proposed standard, employers may be subject to new recordkeeping requirements such as maintaining records of temperature monitoring data and accident reports for heat illness and injuries, even if they are relatively minor. Heat injuries can be complicated and not immediately evident.
Employers may also be required to keep written records of how new and returning employees were acclimated to the heat. These new workers tend to need extra rtime to build tolerance to heat and take more frequent breaks. It’s important to build a union work place that is friendly to that need for new workers.
OSHA could also require employers to establish procedures to effectively communicate and coordinate with other employers at multi-employer worksites, such as obligating host employers to communicate procedures for protecting all workers on-site from heat-related hazards to contractors and independent contractors, vendors, and staffing agencies, among others.
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
