California is Going to Be the Third State to Require Indoor Workers to Wear Heat-protecting Gear

California is about to pass the state’s first rules to protect workers inside from high heat. These rules could go into effect later this summer.

The new rules for the workplace were approved by a standards board at the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) on Thursday. That means they will be sent to the state’s Office of Administrative Law for a quick final review. If all goes well, the standards could be in place by the beginning of August.

The heat rule was supposed to go into effect in 2019, but it has been put off for five years. When the policy becomes law, it will protect about 1.4 million warehouse workers, food workers, people who work in factories, and other indoor workers from working in dangerously hot conditions.

Employers will have to keep an eye on their workers for heat-related illnesses and make sure they have drinks, breaks, and cool places to go when the temperature inside hits 82 degrees Fahrenheit. If it gets to 87 degrees, companies will have to do more, like giving workers more breaks, changing schedules, slowing down the pace of work, or giving them cooling devices.

After these rules go into force, California will join Oregon and Minnesota as the only states that protect workers inside from being too hot. In 2006, California made rules about how hot it can be for people who work outside, like those in building and agriculture.

In the meantime, new state laws in Texas and Florida have made it harder for towns and counties to protect workers from the heat by making it illegal for them to make local rules like making workers take breaks to drink water or spend time in the shade.

Groups that support workers have been pushing for national heat standards for both indoor and outdoor workers, but the government Occupational Health and Safety Administration has not yet made any such rules official.

People who support rules say we need them more than ever because climate change is making heat waves happen more often and with more force.

Staff manager AnaStacia Nicol Wright at WorkSafe, a nonprofit in Oakland, California that fights for workers’ rights, said, “This is a huge deal.” “These safety measures must be put in place right away for workers.”

Not all indoor workers will be protected by the state’s new rules, though. For now, officers at state and county prisons and other prison workers are not covered. In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration didn’t like how much it would cost to make the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation follow the rules. As a result, the rules were changed to exclude the state jail system.

Some groups that fight for workers believe that California’s temperature limits are still too high.

“The risk of heat illness depends on both temperature and humidity, as well as how hard you work,” said Tim Shadix, legal head at the Warehouse Worker Resource Center in Ontario, California. “Even in the upper 70s, if you work in a warehouse and lift heavy boxes for eight or ten hours a day, you could get heat illness.”

Shadix also said that he thinks other states will follow California’s lead and make rules like these.

“With rising summer temperatures caused by climate change, the problem is only getting worse,” he said. “It’s very important to see progress and have more models to encourage other states to follow suit.” “I also believe it gives the federal level momentum, which is very important because we need to protect workers all over the country.”

Every year, heat kills more people in the US than any other type of very bad weather. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 43 people died at work in 2022, up from 36 in 2021, because of being exposed to heat.

Robert Moutrie, a senior policy advocate with the California Chamber of Commerce, said that companies in the state are “shifting into compliance mode.” He also said that restaurants and other food-related businesses will have to carry the most responsibility because kitchens are naturally hot and small.

Moutrie also said that small businesses have been especially worried about how to best follow the rules when they become law in just two months.

He said, “That’s not a lot of time to change how you do things internally, train your staff, and talk to your lawyers about it.” “All of those things need time and money.”

Cal/OSHA said in a statement that it will “move forward with proposing an industry-specific regulation for local and state correctional facilities, taking into account the unique operational realities of these worksites” for people who work in California’s jails and prisons. However, it did not give an exact date.

Wright was upset that the rules didn’t apply to the tens of thousands of people who work in prisons.

“That’s a huge part of the workforce,” she said. “But heat is a problem for both workers and people who don’t work. Many jails don’t have central air conditioning, so if they were forced to do certain things to make sure that workers inside prisons could work safely, that would also help people who are in jail.

Source: NBC