From The New York Times:
Trump Administration Is Undoing Plans to Boost Workplace Heat Protections
The Biden administration took steps to shield workers from extreme temperatures. The Trump administration is taking a gentler approach with employers.
Reporting from Washington
Republicans in Washington are taking steps to roll back federal workplace heat protections as summer temperatures surge.
The Trump administration is moving to rewrite Biden-era rules that would mandate breaks and access to water and shade for workers, in a step businesses lauded but that labor groups said could weaken already limited federal protections. Congress is considering legislation that would go a step further, prohibiting the Labor Department from adopting the Biden-era heat plan or similar rules.
At the same time, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is curtailing workplace inspections that President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s appointees had increased to raise awareness of heat-related illnesses.
OSHA officials did not respond to questions about enforcement activity.
The details of the proposed changes might not be known for months. Still the efforts highlight the divide between labor and industry about what steps to take as the dangers from rising temperatures become more apparent.
The proposed revisions would also reverse momentum toward codifying extreme heat as a workplace hazard. Stretches of record heat have persisted across the country this summer, punctuating decades of steadily climbing summer temperature highs and more frequent spells of dangerously hot conditions. Another “heat dome” is bringing extreme temperatures to the South and Midwest this week.
OSHA officials did not respond to questions about enforcing the mandate.
Business groups welcomed most of those steps, saying employers are already safeguarding workers from heat. But labor organizations say they fear job sites are becoming more dangerous as oversight declines and immigration enforcement creates an atmosphere of fear in the fields and warehouses where heat is most extreme, which could discourage some employees from raising alarm over conditions.
“They’re bringing the work force back to the 1800s,” said Trina David, a crew chief at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport who oversees baggage handling and other activity while planes are parked at gates. The temperature in the city often hits triple digits in the summer, and it can be even hotter on the tarmac.
Heat is linked to hundreds of workplace deaths each year, but labor groups say the true toll is unknown because heat-related illnesses are not properly tracked or reported. In 2024, the death toll was at least 530, according to data compiled by the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
On-the-job injuries and deaths typically trigger federal or state workplace safety investigations. But OSHA doesn’t have any rules specific to extreme heat, which can make holding employers accountable for dangerously hot working conditions difficult, former agency officials said.
OSHA oversees workplace safety in about half of states; in the others, it delegates those duties to state agencies under plans federal regulators approve. Some states and cities have their own workplace heat protections in place, including California, Oregon and Maryland.
But gaps in worker protections and rising global temperatures driven by climate change prompted the Biden administration to increase federal oversight of workplaces where extreme heat is common. In 2022, OSHA started a program that aimed to double inspections.
From April 2022 to December 2024, the agency conducted about 7,000 workplace inspections related to extreme heat, including 147 investigations into potentially heat-related deaths, according to the agency. OSHA sent nearly 1,400 warning letters to employers and issued 60 citations in that span. It was a significant step up: The agency reported about 200 heat-related inspections a year from 2015 through 2020.
As Mr. Biden’s term waned in the summer of 2024, OSHA proposed rules that would require employers to develop heat plans and provide rest areas and water any time the heat index reaches 80 degrees or higher. The Biden administration estimated the rules would cover about 35 million workers.
No comments:
Post a Comment