Friday, July 16, 2021
CapitalPress.com 3
Oregon OSHA adopts emergency rule to
protect farmworkers from extreme heat
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
SALEM — Oregon
OSHA on July 8 adopted
an emergency rule related
to employees working in
extreme heat.
The rule, which comes
after a record-setting heat
wave that led to one farm-
worker’s death, is intended to
protect workers from heat-re-
lated death and illness.
The temporary rule is
eff ective immediately and
will stay in place for 180
days, or until a permanent rule
replaces it. The rule applies
not only to farms but to any
workplace, indoors or out-
doors, where weather could
lead to potential heat dangers
for workers.
“This rule creates greater
clarity for employers about
the specifi c steps that need
to be taken to protect work-
ers from heat stress dan-
gers at work,” Michael
Wood, administrator of Ore-
gon OSHA, said in a state-
ment. “For employees, it fur-
ther crystalizes their existing
rights to protection from heat
hazards where they work.”
The new rule will make
the following changes to
workplaces.
When the heat index is
equal to or above 80 degrees
Fahrenheit, employers are
required to provide:
• Access to suffi cient
shade.
• An adequate supply of
drinking water.
When the heat index
rises above 90 degrees, all
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press File
The new emergency rules adopted by Oregon OSHA are
intended to protect workers.
of the rules for 80 degrees
apply and, in addition,
employers must:
• Ensure eff ective com-
munication between an
employee and a supervisor is
maintained so the employee
can report concerns.
• Ensure that employees
are observed for alertness
and signs and symptoms of
heat illness and monitored to
determine whether medical
attention is necessary.
• Provide a cool-down rest
period in the shade of 10 min-
utes for every two hours of
work. These preventive cool-
down rest periods may be
provided concurrently with
any other meal or rest period
required by policy, rule or law.
• Develop and implement
an emergency medical plan
and practices to gradually
adapt employees to working
in the heat.
Access to shade
To be suffi cient, shade
must:
• Be provided by any nat-
ural or artifi cial means that
does not expose employees
to unsafe or unhealthy condi-
tions and that does not deter
or discourage access or use.
• Either be open to the air
or provide mechanical venti-
lation for cooling.
• At least accommodate
the number of employees
on recovery or rest periods,
so that they can sit in in the
shade.
• Be located as close as
practical to the areas where
employees are working.
• Shade present during
meal periods must be large
enough to accommodate the
number of employees on
the meal period that remain
onsite.
Drinking water
To qualify as an adequate
supply of drinking water, it
must:
• Be readily accessible to
employees at all times and at
no cost.
• Enable each employee to
consume 32 ounces per hour.
• Be cool (66-77 degrees)
or cold (35-65 degrees).
• Drinking water pack-
aged as a consumer prod-
uct and electrolyte-replenish-
ing drinks that do not contain
caff eine (for example, sports
drinks) are acceptable sub-
stitutes, but should not com-
pletely replace the required
water.
• Employers must also
ensure that employees have
ample opportunity to drink
water.
All of the above require-
ments are eff ective immedi-
ately. One requirement, how-
ever, does not need to be met
until Aug. 1: training.
Training required
No later than Aug. 1,
employers must ensure that
all employees, including new
employees, supervisory, and
non-supervisory employees,
are trained in the following
topics, in a language readily
understood, before they begin
work in a heat index equal to
or in excess of 80 degrees:
• The environmental and
personal risk factors for heat
illness, as well as the added
burden of heat load on the
body caused by exertion,
clothing and personal protec-
tive equipment.
• The procedures for com-
plying with the requirements
of this standard, including
the employer’s responsibil-
ity to provide water, pro-
vide daily heat index infor-
mation, shade, cool-down
rests, and access to fi rst aid
as well as the employees’
right to exercise their rights
under this standard without
fear or retaliation.
Washington sets heat
rule for farmworkers
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington farmwork-
ers must have shade handy
and more rest breaks when
the temperature reaches tri-
ple digits under emergency
rules announced July 11 by
the Department of Labor and
Industries.
The rules, eff ective July 13,
respond to a petition from the
United Farm Workers. They
will apply to construction and
other outdoor workers as well
and add to existing heat-stress
workplace regulations.
The emergency rules came
less than two weeks after a
record-shattering heat wave
across the state. L&I said it
modeled them after Califor-
nia regulations and will write
a permanent rule for next
summer.
Gov. Jay Inslee said the
heat reached “catastrophic
levels,” endangering work-
ers. “Our state has rules in
place to ensure those risks are
mitigated, however, the real
impacts of climate change
have changed conditions since
those rules were fi rst written
and we are responding,” Ins-
lee said in a statement.
An Oregon farmworker
died of heat-related causes
June 26. No deaths or ill-
nesses among farmworkers
were reported in Washington,
an L&I spokeswoman said
Friday.
According to the emer-
gency rules, employers must
provide shade “as close as
practicable” to workers or
some other way of cooling
down when temperatures are
100 or above.
L&I suggested fans, mis-
ters and air conditioners as
alternatives to shade.
Also, in triple-digit heat,
farmworkers must have
10-minute paid rest breaks
every two hours.
“I am very glad to see the
shade protection and preven-
tive paid breaks included,”
UFW campaign director Eliz-
abeth Strater said.
She criticized the rule,
however, for setting the
threshold at 100 degrees.
“A worker in 99.5 degree
heat without shade is a worker
in very dangerous work-
ing conditions,” she said. “I
look forward to permanent
rule-making that includes
medical and public health
perspectives.”
Agricultural employers
already are required to pro-
vide water, train workers to
avoid heat illnesses and make
sure workers suff ering in the
heat get care.
Republican state Sen.
Mark Schoesler, a Ritzville
wheat farmer, said he didn’t
think the Inslee administration
needed to add to the rules.
Farmers adjusted to the
heat by starting earlier and
quitting for the day sooner, he
said.
“Of course, we adapted to
it,” Schoesler said. “Govern-
ment assumes our farmwork-
ers aren’t smart enough to
drink water.
“If you treat workers
poorly you won’t have a
crew,” he said. “If I treated
my men poorly, they might
all quit and then I’d have a
real problem.”
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