Road workers. Trash collectors. Factory employees. These are just some of those who could benefit from proposed legislation in New Jersey that would require employers to provide water and other interventions when the mercury starts to rise.
Workers’ advocacy groups and labor unions are pushing for enactment, saying that New Jersey is enduring increasingly hot temperatures that put workers at risk for heat-related health issues. New Jersey is the fastest-warming state in the Northeast, according to climate experts, and a study this year found that heat-related mortality rates in the U.S. rose from 1999 to 2023, especially during the last seven years.
State Sen. Joseph P. Cryan, a Democrat and sponsor of the legislation, said the goal is to recognize that “100-degree days are no longer the exception” in New Jersey and to provide protections for workers who are exposed on the job to the rising temperatures. “It’s a worker safety bill that’s based upon climate change,” said Cryan.
Koshy Koshy, a professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Justice at Rutgers University School of Public Health, said climate change is “absolutely” playing out in emergency rooms as workers are increasingly likely to suffer the debilitating effects of heat stress, which may include dizziness, cardiac issues, organ damage and even death.
“Employers have to be very much cognizant of the impact that prolonged exposure has on workers,” said Koshy, adding that workers need shade, water and rest breaks when they are toiling in the heat. “That is just critical.”
The latest version of the legislation, which was introduced in November, would apply to outdoor and indoor workers. It would also require employers to provide those workers with cool water, paid rest breaks and access to shade and cool-down areas or climate-controlled spaces. The employers also would have to delay non-urgent tasks and alter schedules to avoid peak heat times.
The interventions would kick in when temperatures and the heat index hit 85 degrees, but the threshold would be 80 degrees if employees work in “high radiant” areas, such as a kitchen or boiler room.
The legislation, first introduced in January, has always exempted amusement parks. The latest version also exempts emergency and law enforcement personnel and workers in construction and related fields if their collective-bargaining agreements establish similar protections. The bill would also exempt most commercial farms—which could impact thousands of farm workers who toil mostly in the southern part of the state, harvesting blueberries, tomatoes and the assorted vegetables that have long made the state known as the Garden State.
Cryan said there was significant opposition to the original legislation, and that he is trying to broker an outcome that will protect workers while also considering the impact on business and industry.
He said the New Jersey Farm Bureau, for example, was originally against the legislation, but is now going to work with agriculture experts at Rutgers University to come up with a plan to provide protections for farm workers. “We didn’t pull them out completely,” Cryan said of farm workers. “We just went in a different path.”
According to the latest version, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, in consultation with the Department of Labor and Workplace Development and the Department of Health, “shall adopt a heat-related illness and injury prevention plan for all commercial farm workers specific to operations conducted on commercial farms.” At a minimum, the plan would include water and rest breaks, access to shaded areas or climate-controlled spaces, as well as an emergency response for workers injured as a result of the heat.
Allen Carter Jr., president of the New Jersey Farm Bureau, said in a statement to Inside Climate News that the revisions were a “welcome improvement” and that they will be working with the state to “create standards for the farm industry that reflect the reality of farming yet ensure responsible worker protections.”
Cryan said he is optimistic that the legislation will move swiftly, with a vote possible in the Senate before the end of the year and enactment by March.
New Jersey is the latest state to grapple with the impact of climate change on worker health. The proposed legislation would be similar to what is already in place in California and Oregon, which mandate protections for indoor and outdoor workers.
Minnesota protects indoor workers and Washington state protects those who work outside. Florida and Texas have banned local governments from passing any kind of heat safety regulations. The Biden administration introduced a federal heat standard in July but, with the re-election of former President Donald Trump and his promise of reduced regulation, many expect that the rules proposed by the Occupational, Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will go nowhere.
“It’s going to be up to New Jersey to protect its workers,” said Garrett O’Connor, director of worker organizing and policy for Make the Road New Jersey, an advocacy group that supports the legislation.
About 30 union and workers’ rights groups wrote a letter in June to Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin, a Democrat, and Senate President Nicholas P. Scutari, also a Democrat, urging swift passage of the earlier version of legislation. The groups included Teamsters Joint Council 73, SEIU and the New Jersey Policy Perspective.
“As climate change advances, inadequately protected workers are in its crosshairs,” stated the letter, which noted that eight of the 10 hottest years on record in New Jersey have occurred since 2010. “If we don’t start doing everything we can to guarantee the strongest and broadest workplace heat standard possible, we’re planning to allow worker deaths to increase.”
Rafael Escalante, 22, of Weehawken, N.J., was a waiter last summer at a restaurant in Jersey City, often serving tables on the scorching outdoor patio near a vent that pumped out heat from the kitchen. It often got so hot, he said, that workers would take a break and go inside the walk-in freezer for relief.
Escalante said many workers have endured far worse conditions than his restaurant job and that workers deserve to be protected from the serious health consequences of the warming climate. That is why, he said, he is supporting the legislation. “It isn’t just about saying climate change is real. It’s about acting on it,” he said.
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