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Dive brief:
- The Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners in Florida delayed a vote this week on a municipal heat standard for outdoor workers.
- The potential rule would protect workers, largely in construction and agriculture, by ensuring thermal safety protections on the job, such as water, shade and breaks. The board postponed the decision until March to allow time for further discussion.
- The standard would create and define outdoor employee rights, require companies to develop a mandatory heat exposure program, and establish penalties for violationsthe largest of which would carry a $3,000 fine.
Diving knowledge:
WeCount!, a South Florida nonprofit that advocates for immigrant workers, supported the adoption of the standard. The group ¡Qué Calor! campaign sought to win protections for outdoor workers in the region.
“Today, our Miami-Dade Commission delayed a historic vote that would have guaranteed basic human rights for outdoor workers, such as access to clean water and the right to a 10-minute drink break water in the shade,” said Oscar Londoño, co. -executive director of We Count! said in a statement shared with Construction Dive after the delay was announced.
Opponents of the bill, including commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, denounced the standard. He called it “a flagrant and excessive heat penalty on two industries,” CBS News reported.
Nelson Stabile, president of the South Florida Home Builders Association, told CBS News that he opposed the bill because he felt the enforcement and fines are too egregious, but he supported “the awareness, the education, rest, water, shade” for outdoor workers. Stabile apparently said a heat standard would have to come from the state or federal level.
Thermal safety is of utmost importance in a city like Miami, which saw its hottest year on record this year and recorded its hottest day on Earth since at least 1979, according to research cited by the bill.
Existing rules
The US currently has no official federal heat standard, although OSHA has announced its intention to develop one. An initial comment period for the rule closed in January 2022. The timeline for developing a rule is long, however, and for now, the agency is only recommending guidelines to protect workers.
The agency issued a national program of emphasis in 2022, which lasts for three years. The NEP strengthens the “Water. Rest. Shadow.” credo, while focusing on vulnerable workers by coordinating with the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, which sends inspectors to help with OSHA’s efforts at workplaces.
However, a NEP is not a standardwhich would have specific and enforceable guidelines that could result in penalties for employers who do not comply.
Some states have their own rules, despite this. Both California and Washington have an outdoor exposure rule to protect workers from heat, while Minnesota has a rule that applies to indoor workplaces.
A battle over similar laws was fought this summer in the Lone Star State, where a bill signed by Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott overturned several city ordinances, including some mandatory water breaks for construction workers. Abbott and his supporters claimed the bill eliminated varied and cumbersome regulations, but opponents said the law put workers at risk.
In September, a state district judge declared Abbott’s law unconstitutional, but the the state attorney general appealed the rulingthat is, the law went into effect.
