Vote on workplace heat safety rules for Arizona disappoints labor rights groups

Arizona may not get formal regulations to protect workers from extreme heat on the job anytime soon.

On Tuesday, the second step in a three-part process for establishing a new heat safety standard fell short of what many labor rights groups were hoping for.

An advisory committee to the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health on Tuesday voted to recommend the Industrial Commission of Arizona consider new workplace heat safety guidelines. But the committee did not specify how Arizona employers should be held accountable for following those guidelines.

Several labor rights groups decried the vote, saying if Arizona does not establish a formal standard that would allow the state to enforce its heat rules, many workers will continue to face unsafe conditions in Arizona’s extreme temperatures.

“This is absolutely a matter of life or death,” Katelyn Parady, with the workers’ rights organization National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, said during public comments at Tuesday’s meeting. “We needed this rule 10 years ago; we need it today. It was 90 degrees at the end of February and workers can’t wait.”

Arizona is known for hot weather, but the state has never had safety regulations specifically to protect workers from heat. Seven other states, including neighboring California and Nevada, have now adopted state-level standards for workplace heat safety.

Last year, Gov. Katie Hobbs convened a task force to recommend heat guidelines for Arizona workplaces. The task force of 24 Arizonans from industries including agriculture, construction and firefighting in December finalized their recommendations.

Their proposed guidelines would require employers to create workplace heat illness prevention plans, provide potable water at no cost to workers, provide shade and encourage workers to take rest breaks. The guidelines would also require employers to provide acclimatization periods and training to help workers stay safe in the heat. Emergency operations and workplaces where employees are exposed to heat only for short periods would be exempt.

During the Tuesday meeting, the ADOSH advisory committee voted to advance the task force guidelines as written, without adding a recommendation that the Industrial Commission also begin a rulemaking process to establish an enforceable heat standard.

ADOSH advisory committee member Amber Pappas said the committee did not take the issue of heat safety lightly, but said rulemaking would be a complicated process.

“The rulemaking process takes quite some time and we’ve got to get it right in the state of Arizona,” Pappas said. “You’ve seen in the past rules that were rushed — they’re not effective.”

The full Industrial Commission is likely to consider the recommendations for heat safety sometime in April.

This article was produced as a project for USC Annenberg’s Center for Climate Journalism and Communication and Center for Health Journalism 2025 Health and Climate Change Reporting Fellowship.