With summer approaching, Arizona will strengthen guidelines to protect workers from heat exposure on the job. But state officials will not begin a rulemaking process to establish an enforceable workplace heat standard, at least for now.
Arizona’s heat can be deadly, but the state has never had regulations to require specific protections from heat in workplaces.
Labor groups have been calling for regulations like California and six other states have, which would require employers to provide water and heat safety training, and penalize employers who don’t take such precautions.
Gov. Katie Hobbs last year convened a task force to make recommendations to the Industrial Commission of Arizona around workplace heat safety. The task force submitted their recommendations in December and the Industrial Commission reviewed the plan during a meeting Thursday.
Most members of the public who made comments during Thursday’s meeting expressed concern that the recommendations from the task force do not include details about how rules for water, shade, rest breaks, or other heat safety measures should be enforced in workplaces.
“Guidelines don’t serve the same function as standards because guidelines are voluntary,” Phoenix airport worker Trina David told the commission. “Voluntary measures will never be enough in a state where workers are collapsing, being hospitalized, and living with permanent heat-related illnesses.”
Commissioners did express interest in enforceable regulations.
“I do look forward to a day in the near future that Arizona workers will have a standard that protects them so that we can all go home safely after a day of work,” Commissioner Orion Godfrey said.
But for the time being, the commission voted to adopt the guidelines recommended by the task force and incorporate them into the state’s emphasis program for workplace heat safety.
In the months ahead, the Industrial Commission will provide more training to employers around heat risks and encourage employers to adopt workplace heat safety plans. The commission will also collect data on the effectiveness of heat safety interventions in Arizona while looking at how well heat standards have worked in other states that have adopted them.
Commissioners plan to revisit the state’s heat recommendations in December.
Industrial Commission Chairman Dennis Kavanaugh called the newly adopted heat guidelines an important first step.
“Today’s not a once-and-done. It’s the beginning of our process as commissioners to deal with this issue,” Kavanaugh said.
Kavanaugh noted the rulemaking process to create a standard is slow — often taking more than a year — while guidelines can take effect immediately. And he said it would be important for the commission to gather more data to understand potential costs and impacts of a standard before pursuing rulemaking.
Katelyn Parady with the labor organization National Council for Occupational Safety and Health said she was disappointed by the commission’s vote, which she sees as another delay.
"People have been waiting and waiting," Parady said. “At what point is there enough information to take action?”
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.
