Two months after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation preventing local governments from requiring heat protections for outdoors workers, Tampa Bay-area Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor is calling on the Biden administration to finalize federal workplace protections against heat-related injury and illness.
The Florida law (HB 433), set to go into effect on July 1, will allow private companies to avoid any mandate to provide basic protections like shade, accessible water, and breaks from the excessive heat and humidity that takes place daily in Florida throughout the summer months.
It was introduced months after Miami-Dade County activists worked with local leaders in crafting an ordinance that would have provided heat protections for outdoors workers in construction and agriculture after at least two farm workers died from excessive heat in South Florida last year.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited a South Florida contractor in April for lack of protection after a heat stroke killed a 26-year-old farm worker at a sugarcane farm in Belle Glade; he’d worked in an open field after the heat index reached 97 degrees.
“The devastating health and economic consequences of the climate crisis continue to grow, and the Tampa Bay region is particularly at risk for extreme heat and worsening air quality on hot, humid days,” Castor wrote in her letter to Douglas L. Parker, assistant secretary at OSHA, and Julie Su, acting secretary at the Department of Labor.
“Workers deserve access to breaks, appropriate personal protective equipment, access to water and cooling stations, and education on how to recognize heated related illness. We need to take swift action and use every tool at our disposal to strengthen communities’ — and workers’ — resilience against such extreme heat and weather events.”
‘We’re going to follow OSHA’s rule’
Panama City Republican Jay Trumbull, the sponsor of the measure in the Florida Senate, said, “We’re going to follow OSHA’s rule,” when asked by Democrats on the floor about who would protect outdoor workers.
However, OSHA imposes no specific heat exposure standards, although the agency is authorized to enforce the “general duty clause” of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which calls upon each employer to provide a workplace free of “recognized hazards” causing or likely to cause “death or serious physical harm “to its employees,” according to a legislative analysis.
In September 2021, President Joe Biden directed OSHA to begin the rulemaking for heat stress standards.
In April, OSHA presented the draft rule during a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health. The committee, which advises the agency on safety and health standards and policy, unanimously recommended OSHA move forward expeditiously on the notice of proposed rulemaking.
Rep. Castor said that with temperatures continuing to rise and workers toiling under “increasingly hazardous conditions, I urge OSHA to move forward expeditiously to propose and finalize a rule to protect workers across the country, including in Florida.”
“In the meantime, I also urge OSHA to continue existing outreach and enforcement in areas where workers are exposed to heat hazards and increase inspections in high-risk industries like construction and agriculture,” Castor wrote.
Shortly before DeSantis signed the heat-safety ban, the Phoenix, Arizona, City Council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance requiring city contractors and their subcontractors to provide access to rest, shade, water, and air conditioning for all employees who work outdoors. That vote was 7-0.
The post Kathy Castor calls on OSHA to speed up federal heat protections for outdoor workers appeared first on Florida Phoenix.
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