President Joe Biden on Thursday outlined steps his administration is taking to address the consequences of extreme heat, including targeted inspections of industries where workers are at increased risk of heat exposure and the adoption of federal heat-related protections.
Mr. Biden said he asked acting Labor Secretary Julie Su to issue a heat hazard alert clarifying that workers have federal heat-related protections and telling employers what they can or should be doing to protect workers.
“We should be protecting workers from hazardous conditions, and we will,” the president said. “And those states where they do not, I’m going to be calling them out, where they refuse to protect these workers in this awful heat.”
The president also said Ms. Su will work with her team to ramp up enforcement efforts and conduct more inspections of high-risk industries such as construction and agriculture.
Increased enforcement activities will take place while the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration continues drafting national workplace heat-safety rules.
OSHA started the process of adopting federal workplace heat-safety standards in October 2021. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Labor Department takes anywhere from 15 months to 19 years to finish. On average, from 1981 to 2010, OSHA took seven years to develop and issue workplace health and safety standards, according to the GAO.
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