Amid heat wave, labor groups urge N.J. to enact protections for outdoor workers

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 27: Construction workers rest in the shade during maintenance work in Lafayette Park on July 27, 2023 in Washington, DC. Washington DC is under an excessive heat watch notice as a heat wave blankets the East Coast. According to media reports the month of July has broken the record for the warmest month ever with climate change experts fearing the summers in the future will only get warmer. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Temperatures have exceeded 90 degrees with unbearable humidity in New Jersey several times in the last week, but there’s no relief for construction and farm workers and other laborers who must work outside.

Labor groups failed to get the Legislature to pass a bill aimed at enacting protections for those workers before lawmakers left Trenton for a summer recess. Sara Cullinane, executive director of immigrant and labor advocacy organization Make the Road New Jersey, said legislators should reconvene to get it done “before more workers get sick.”

“As the climate crisis escalates in New Jersey, and in the face of federal uncertainty, New Jersey lawmakers must take action now to protect workers lives by passing a common-sense heat standard in New Jersey this summer,” Cullinane said.

The Biden administration has proposed a rule intended to protect workers from heat-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths, but its implementation could be years away — or never, if a new U.S. Supreme Court decision on federal regulations gets in the way.

“I think it would be fantastic for New Jersey to get a law done before workers die, rather than in the wake of it,” said Antonio De Loera-Brust, of California-based United Farm Workers.

In 2006, California became the first state to pass heat protection standards. Two years earlier, a 53-year-old worker died after spending 10 hours picking grapes in temperatures that topped 100 degrees.

The New Jersey bill has already advanced out of both chambers’ labor committees, but not without opponents. Business groups argue that there are already standards in place for outdoor employees and that the new rules would be too disruptive.

“Employers are taking better care of their employees than they ever did, because when you get your team, you get good people, you want to keep them and treat them well,” Eileen Kean of the National Federation of Independent Business told lawmakers in May.

The federal standard, proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, would direct employers to create a plan that would trigger under a heat index of 90 degrees. The proposed rules would limit how long people can work in the heat, require paid breaks and access to cool water, and mandate employers to observe workers for symptoms of heat-related illnesses.

But advocates are concerned because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning the Chevron doctrine, which compelled courts to defer to federal employees’ interpretations of vague statutes passed by Congress. The federal heat standard — along with many other federal agencies and rules — could face numerous legal challenges, Cullinane said.

“While there is no doubt that the proposed OSHA rule to create a federal workplace heat standard is well within the agency’s authority and based in science, large corporations are likely to sue to block any final rule,” she said.

A heat standard passed in New Jersey would protect workers immediately, Cullinane said. New Jersey can show it cares about worker safety, she added, noting that states like Florida and Texas have banned local requirements for water breaks and rest times.

Nearly 500 workers have died between 2011 to 2022 due to heat exposure, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And up to 170,000 workers fall victim to heat-stress incidents nationwide, according to consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. Lower-wage workers are five times more likely to suffer from heat-related injuries, and farmworkers face up to 35 times higher risk of dying from heat exposure than the rest of the U.S. workforce, the group said in a 2023 study.

The New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center at Rutgers released a study last month predicting a rise in sea-level change, alarmingly increasing temperatures, and more consistent extreme weather events by the year 2100. These warming trends could accelerate with climate change, leading to increased heat stress-related health conditions, the study says.

“Under high emissions, it is expected that approximately 70% of summers in New Jersey will be warmer than any prior to 2006 by the middle of the 21st century, growing to 90% by the end of the century,” according to the study.

It also emphasizes that high temperatures plus high humidity can lead to greater risk of heat stress because sweating is less effective in humid conditions. Increased heat stress could cause “greater incidences of heat related illnesses, hospital admissions, and deaths among vulnerable populations,” the study says.

California, Washington, Minnesota, Oregon, and Colorado have heat standards in place for when outdoor temperatures reach 85 degrees. They require employers to provide water, breaks in the shade or cooling areas, and heat prevention plans to prioritize worker safety, like pausing work until later in the day once temperatures drop.

The New Jersey bill would provide something similar. Under the proposed legislation, employers’ plans to protect workers from excessive heat must include providing cold water, limiting the time workers are exposed to heat, postponing non-urgent tasks until a heat wave ends, and having an emergency response if a worker gets sick.

“Shade, water, and rest — these are three things that are not luxuries. This is what any human being would need to survive while working, doing physically strenuous activity during these deadly times of extreme humidity, triple digits and strong sun,” said De Loera-Brust.

Nine of the last 10 summers have been the hottest on record, and 2023 was declared the world’s warmest year so far. And according to Climate Central, New Jersey is one of the country’s fastest-warming states. 

More than 30 labor unions and worker advocacy groups signed a June letter to top legislative officials urging they pass the workplace heat standard before the summer started.

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