MIAMI.- ‘No pain or glory’ ended the intentions of some commissioners and environmental groups to provide better working conditions to employees outdoors in front of the heat in Miami-Dade.
The draft ordinance, which had the main objective of offering heat protection to more than 300,000 workers in areas such as construction and agriculture, among others, was withdrawn and filed in the Commission County.
The proposal was removed from the Commission’s agenda so as not to conflict with a recent state law that prohibits local governments from adopting their own measures on the issue of heat in work environments, commissioners said.
Measure provisions to face the heat
The initiative raised five essential points: mandatory heat safety program, access to drinking water, shaded recovery periods, multilingual notification of employee rights and penalties for violations.
The mandatory heat exposure safety program proposed to include training on diseases generated by high temperatures and appropriate first aid measures prior to the arrival of medical care in the event of a serious heat-related event, among others.
Likewise, the legislative proposal ordered employers provide workers with access to a sufficient quantity of drinking waterfresh or cold, suitable for human consumption, maintained in safe and hygienic conditions to prevent contamination and diseases.
Another point of the filed rule required that employers provide 10-minute shaded recovery periods every two hours for employees, when the outside temperature equals or exceeds 95 degrees Fahrenheit. It included civil sanctions for employers who violated the legislative provision.
Important aspects
The initiative of commissioners Marleine Bastien and Kionne McGhee had been ‘battled’ since last year in the county legislative body and took greater prominence after the death of an agricultural worker due to alleged complications associated with high temperatures.
Farmworker rights group WeCount! supported the norm through a campaign called ‘How Hot! How much heat!’which has been implemented since 2021 to advocate for the protection of outdoor workers.
In Miami-Dade, 19 deaths have been attributed to extreme heat conditions between 2016 and 2023. One incident in 2016 was related to outdoor work, when a landscaper lost his life due to heat stroke.
Meanwhile, a University of Florida study found that between 2010 and 2020, there were 215 heat-related deaths in Florida, including at least 34 victims in Miami-Dade County each year.
