California workplace safety board approves new heat rules aimed at protecting workers

Calif. approves new heat rules to protect workers

FRESNO, Calif. — California workplace safety officials voted unanimously Thursday to approve new rules aimed at strengthening and clarifying protections for people who work outside.

The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board’s decision puts into place special precautions to protect those working in fields and construction sites once the temperature soars past 95 degrees.

Those high-heat rules only apply to workers in the agriculture, landscaping, construction, oil and gas extraction industries and employees transporting heavy materials.

California implemented the country’s first heat-illness standard in 2005, requiring that farms and contractors give workers water and breaks, have shade available and have emergency plans in place. The rules first were implemented on an emergency basis and were intended to protect the thousands of seasonal workers who pick and sort much of the nation’s plums, peaches and other crops during summer’s peak.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, workplace safety officials and farmworker advocates called for changes to the standard after finding hundreds of farm laborers working in recent years with little or no shade or water. The state is currently investigating six potential heat-related fatalities from this year alone.

“These amendments will better protect the health and safety of thousands of California workers who make their living under the sun,” Schwarzenegger said Thursday.

Since 2005, 28 workers have died of confirmed heat-related causes, 12 of those in agriculture.

Once the temperature hits 85 degrees, the new rules require all employers to provide shade for a quarter of their outside crews. It also allows employers to use trees and vines for shade breaks instead of tarps or umbrellas.

Labor advocates said those exceptions won’t keep workers safe, and that forestry workers as well as car and window washers shouldn’t be exempt from the special high-heat provisions.

“A regulation that leaves it up to workers to take rest breaks on their own initiative isn’t adequate,” said Anne Katten of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. “They legitimately fear being fired for failing to keep up.”

Carl Borden, an attorney with the California Farm Bureau Federation, said partial coverage was sufficient because not all workers would want to take a break in the shade at the same time.

The rules are expected to take effect this fall.