Perspective
Jan. 19, 2017
SB 1167: Working in the heat indoors
Protections against heat-related injury and illness will expand to indoor workspaces starting in 2019. By Margaret Grover
Margaret Grover
Grover Workplace Solutions PCLabor & Employment, Litigation
Phone: (510) 654-1678
Email: mgrover@groverworkplacesolutions.com
Case Western Reserve Law School
Protections against heat-related injury and illness will expand to indoor workspaces starting in 2019. Recently enacted California Labor Code Section 6720 requires the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health to propose standards designed to minimize heat-related illness and injury among workers working indoors. These standards are to address environmental temperatures, work activity levels, heat stress, heat strain and other factors. Once enacted, the heat regulations will be implemented by the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (CalOSHA).
The heat related protections for indoor workers will probably cover many of the same areas that are covered by regulations for outdoor workers. Those regulations require that employers:
* Provide training about heat illness prevention for all employees and supervisors. The training is broad ranging, and must include risk factors for heat illness, the importance of hydration, common signs and symptoms of heat illness, the employer's procedures for preventing heat illness, and appropriate first aid steps.
* Provide sufficient fresh water so that each employee can drink at least one quart per hour, or four eight-ounce glasses, of water per hour.
* Encourage employees to drink water.
* Encourage rest and provide access to an appropriate location for employees to take a cool-down rest period of at least five minutes.
* Adopt written procedures that comply with the Cal/OSHA Heat Illness Prevention Standard.
When the heat regulations for outdoor employers were adopted, some employers expressed concerns that workers would take advantage of the rest requirements. Under the existing regulations, when temperatures exceed 80 degrees, employees are to be allowed and encouraged to take a preventative cool-down rest whenever they feel the need to rest to protect themselves from overheating. The preventive rest period is to be no less than five minutes, plus whatever time the employee needs to access the rest area. Resting employees are to be monitored and may not be ordered back to work until any signs or symptoms of heat illness have abated. While there certainly is a possibility of employee abuse, the anecdotal evidence has not shown widespread demand for an excessive number of cool-down rest periods.
CalOSHA prepared model written heat protection policies for employers with outdoor workers, and is likely to do the same once the regulations are adopted for indoor workers. The agency has also taken its responsibility for enforcing the regulations seriously, asking for copies of the employer's heat procedures whenever the agency conducts an inspection or receives a complaint against the employer, even if the complaint is not related to heat. It is likely to do the same for businesses that employ workers indoors.
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