(PublicNewsService.org) – The Biden administration is proposing rules to protect workers from extreme heat.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said its proposed regulations would protect 36 million workers in outdoor and indoor settings.
Samantha Guerrero, community organizer for the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils, said protections are needed for the state’s outdoor workers.
“This would require worker access to clean drinking water and for access to shaded or indoor rest areas,” Guerrero outlined. “And this would also allow the right to take regular rest breaks, which in Idaho law we currently don’t have anything like that.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said 479 workers died from heat exposure between 2011 and 2022 and there were more than 33,000 heat-related illnesses and injuries reported in the same time frame.
A poll from the Rural Democracy Initiative found such of protections are popular, with 77% of rural voters supporting workers’ right to organize for safe working conditions.
Guerrero argued it is important for the federal government to step up in this area to fill in gaps in Idaho laws.
“There are a lot of farmworkers who are in danger of losing their lives in these extreme temperatures,” Guerrero observed. “So far, we have seen no urgency from the state to enact or create any protections.”
Guerrero emphasized protection from the heat for outdoor workers is overdue and the proposed rules are simply the minimum of what can be done. She added farmworkers are among the most affected by extreme heat and yet they have the fewest safeguards.
“They are continuously left out of having protections and out of conversations of what are their needs and how can we better serve them and make sure that we are protecting their lives,” Guerrero asserted. “Because farm work is some of the most dangerous work on the planet.”