By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services
Key Points:
- Arizona moves to adopt heat safety requirements for employers
- Recommendations include access to water, shade, and rest for workers
- Arizona employers would also be required to develop heat illness prevention plans
Arizona appears finally ready to adopt some specific requirements for employers to protect their workers from excess heat.
Recommendations from a special task force, released earlier last week, would require companies to develop plans to ensure their employees have access to water, shade, and rest. They would mandate that employers train their supervisors and workers about the risks of heat exposure.
What came out of what Gov. Katie Hobbs called the Workplace Heat Safety Task Force, however, does not include hard-and-fast standards, such as what employers must do when the temperature reaches a specific point. Instead, the recommendations — and, for the moment, that’s all they are — say are designed to be flexible, particularly in requirements for rest breaks.
The next step is for an advisory committee of the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health to review the recommendations, hold a public hearing on Feb. 4, and develop its own proposal. That, in turn, gets forwarded to the Industrial Commission of Arizona, the agency charged with protecting worker safety.
