Governor Abigail Spanberger is considering legislation that would protect workers against heat stress.
"We have an opportunity here to create the first-ever heat stress protections for workers, so this is a big deal. I'm going to move this conference committee report, and ask the House to adopt to it."
That was Delegate Phil Hernandez in a moment advocates have been hoping would happen for years; a bill that calls on the Safety and Health Codes Board to adopt regulations to guard against heat stress. When the bill passed, the House broke into a round of applause. Manuel Gago Silcox is director of the Workers Justice Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center.
"More and more people are going to the ER because they don't have the training or provide the protections like cold water or a place to rest," Gago Silcox says. "So, these precautions that we want to be enforceable will be saving hundreds of people's lives."
The original version of the bill included a private right to action, allowing workers to sue if their employers violated the new rules on heat stress. That part was taken out to get the votes to pass the bill.
I would have preferred if the private action stayed," says Charlotte Brody at the Blue Green Alliance. "But in lieu of that, what we need to do is to create a strong rule and do a whole lot of education so people know that they’ re protected and what they can do to make sure that those protections are in place."
If the governor signs the bill, the new rules on heat stress will go into place in 2028.
