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NJ eyes ways to protect workers from the heat while business groups object
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Mike Hayes
Published May 7, 2024
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By
Mike Hayes
Published May 7, 2024
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A bill that would require New Jersey employers to better protect their workers from dangerous heat on the job moved closer to becoming law Monday.
It could have big implications in particular for New Jersey’s billion-dollar farming sector and fast-growing warehouse industry. The state’s farms depend largely on migrant workers, who — unlike in some other states — are not protected by any formal requirements that say employers must provide breaks.
Representatives from farming and industry groups are opposing the legislation, which they argue is redundant and a strain on those trying to run their operations in a tough business climate.
The bill would require public and private employers to have a plan to monitor employees' exposure to excessive heat, provide cool potable water and provide paid rest breaks along with access to shade or cool-down areas in climate-controlled spaces. It would also call for employers to limit hazardous heat exposure through practices such as rotating employees and scheduling work earlier or later in the day.
If passed into law, the legislation would establish an “Occupational Heat-related Illness and Injury Prevention Program” within the Department of Labor and Workforce Development with the ability to investigate potential violations by employers. Any employer who violates the heat-stress standards would risk fines of up to $5,000 and possible jail time.
The bill passed the Senate Labor Committee on Monday with a unanimous, bipartisan vote of 4-0. Next, it’s expected to be considered by the Senate’s budget committee and the Assembly Labor committee.
Sen. Joe Cryan, a Democrat from Union and the sponsor of the bill, said the measures the bill calls for are “common sense”
“We're not trying to invent new ground here. We're just trying to keep folks that are working out there in 100 degree heat safe,” he said.
He said that as temperatures have gotten hotter in New Jersey due to climate change, providing these sorts of protections to workers has become more urgent. He said heat stress killed 815 United States workers and seriously injured more than 70,000 workers from 1992 through 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“For those of us that are of a certain age, we remember when 80 degrees was considered a hot day. Today, I think more folks look at it as between 95 and 100. So the idea is to move with the times,” Cryan said.
Among those on hand to speak in favor of the bill Monday was Gerardo Cortez, a UPS driver and shop steward for Teamsters Local 177, which represents truck drivers and mechanics.
“I'm as experienced as anybody in the heat. I served in the Marine Corps and did two tours in Iraq. I've worked in Arizona, Texas and California. It doesn't get up to 130 degrees in New Jersey, but working in our humidity is a different monster,” he said.
Cortez said that as a driver, he spends most of his days in a metal truck and in the back, it can get to more than 110 degrees on a hot summer day.
“If it takes you longer than a minute to select the package, you come out completely sweating, it's hard to breathe, [you] become lightheaded,” he said.
Cortez said that on hot days, he gets calls from drivers and warehouse workers in his union who are struggling in the heat and it's his job to tell them to find a shady spot, drink some water and rest.
“But too often, managers are calling them, or calling myself and just asking when are these guys getting back to work, when are they going to continue to deliver packages,” he said.
It doesn't get up to 130 degrees in New Jersey, but working in our humidity is a different monster.
Gerardo Cortez, a UPS driver and shop steward for Teamsters Local 177
Cryan noted that three other states have adopted similar standards to what he’s proposing — Oregon, Washington and California. They’re “more West Coast states, but states that have seen more of that kind of heat wave type of thing that we continue to experience now in the East,” he said.
Garrett O’Connor, director of worker organizing and policy for immigrant advocacy organization Make The Road New Jersey, called Monday’s vote a “great step.”
“We understand that there are several more steps in the process to come, but we're confident that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will understand the importance of this bill and will cast yes votes to make sure that New Jersey workers are protected as the impacts of climate change advance and worsen,” he said.
At the hearing Monday, representatives from several business groups spoke out against the bill.
Ashley Kerr, a research associate with New Jersey Farm Bureau, which has 6,500 members across the state’s $1.49 billion farming industry, said the issue of heat stress in agriculture is “not new” and it is already part of most farm safety best-practice recommendations.
“Farmers already use common-sense managerial decisions during the several instances during the summer when outdoor daytime temperatures rise to very high levels,” she said.
Kerr said requirements called for in the bill — like rearranging work schedules, providing cool drinking water and adding rest breaks — are already “common practices.”
“New Jersey farmers and their workforce have managed the issue of periodic high field temperatures as a normal course of business for a long time now,” she said.
Kerr said that a few items in the bill had farmers “scratching our heads” — most significantly, the authority for the state Department of Labor to issue fines or issue stop work orders if a violation is found.
“This threat is unreasonable and contradicts long standing state policy to support agriculture in the state,” she said.
Kerr called the bill “impractical and virtually unimplementable program for agriculture, the way that it is currently written.”
NJ Senate Debate
New Jersey’s Democratic primary candidates for the U.S. Senate will take part in a debate moderated by WNYC’s Morning Edition host Michael Hill at the South Orange Performing Arts Center.
Tune the evening of May 13 on 93.9 FM or wnyc.org. More information here.
She also pointed to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration plan to publish a proposed federal heat standard for workplaces later this year. Kerr encouraged the legislators to recognize that the agricultural industry will be subject to the upcoming federal OSHA standards for heat stress.
Alyssa Frank, vice president of government affairs from the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, also pointed to OSHA and the federal heat related standards that are being worked on as a reason her group doesn’t believe the state needs this legislation.
Frank called the bill as it is written an “excessive mandate on businesses who are already kind of struggling to make a workable business climate in New Jersey.”
She said her organization is working on an amendment that will include requests like removing the possibility of jail time if an employer is found in violation of the standards.
“We think that just goes too far,” she said.
Cortez, the UPS driver who spoke at Monday’s hearing, told lawmakers that last summer his union won important heat protections in their most recent contract, including getting new ice machines, trucks being retrofitted with fans and new trucks as of 2026 that will come with air conditioning.
“I'm thinking of the drivers at Amazon that do the same work as we do, but don't have a union to back them. And they're suffering from heat exhaustion and you have managers that are also telling them to hurry up and finish their deliveries,” Cortez said.
“No worker should have to choose between their job and going home safely,” he added.
Cryan said he has committed to meeting with groups that said they want to offer amendments to the bill.
Tagged
economy
new jersey
Mike Hayes
Mike Hayes covers equity and access to opportunity in New Jersey. He joined WNYC and Gothamist in 2023. Before that, he worked as a freelance journalist writing about policing and criminal justice. He has written for ProPublica, CNN, HuffPost, BuzzFeed News and The Appeal. He is also the author of the book, “The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform.” In 2019, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
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