Florida lawmakers try again to big-foot local government

Last summer was the hottest in Florida’s history. But state lawmakers must have been vacationing in Alaska, judging by their hostility during this legislative session toward helping ensure outdoor workers get water and shade breaks.

Two bills, Senate Bill 1492 and companion House Bill 433, under consideration in Tallahassee, would stop any city or county from setting standards to protect workers from the increasing risks of extreme heat.

The bills are clearly a response to efforts by Miami-Dade County last year to impose landmark regulations that would have required businesses to give outdoor workers mandatory shaded water breaks on hot days. The proposal stalled in November under pressure from industries that employ outdoor workers, such as construction and agriculture.

WORKPLACE HEAT

But now the Legislature — with the sort of urgency we wish they’d apply to the state’s terrible insurance market — has leaped into action on the topic, pushing these measures that are aimed at blocking any workplace heat-safety measures from being passed anywhere in Florida.

It’s another case of Tallahassee big-footing local governments. Even though the Legislature is run by Republicans, the party that used to stand for a small state government, pre-emptions of local government powers are increasingly common.

Critics of heat-related regulations say the rules aren’t needed. Government doesn’t need to get between workers and employers. Current enforcement is enough. But is it?

In Florida, companies that employ workers who face severe heat are not required to offer water, shade and rest breaks, as the Miami Herald reported in a recent story on the legislation making its way through the state Capitol. Federal law doesn’t require it either, though it strongly suggests it, the

Herald reported.

OHSA STEPS IN

That leaves only the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which can fine employers. And yes, that sometimes happens.

Since 2020, five Florida companies were fined after employees died of heat-related illness, and another four were fined after employees were hospitalized. In one 2021 OSHA case cited by lobbyists and Miami-Dade Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins — who said last year that MiamiDade’s proposed rule “could potentially kill industry” — a Central Florida sugar grower was fined $81,000 for failing to provide a heat-safe workplace. That was the company’s second fine, the Herald found. There had been another for about $9,500 in 2020.

So do we need more rules on heat in the workplace? Sen. Dennis Baxley, a Republican from Orange County whose family has grown citrus for generations, insisted that mandating how employers deal with heat and their workers is a case of overregulation: “I don’t think we need a nanny government standing over any person who might get too hot today.”

And yet, if you went through last summer in South Florida, you know how bad the heat became. That’s not our imagination. As the Miami Herald has reported, days are hotter now, there are more hot days and it’s not cooling off at night as much as it used to. That’s something businesses need to adjust. But they might not do that willingly.

Baxley’s point sounds like common sense on its surface. Do we really need to be told to cool off? In a workplace setting, that makes an assumption that companies are reasonable and well-managed. That’s not always the case. Waiting until OSHA regulations are violated, when workers are hospitalized or die, seems like a bad idea.

And there’s also the Zachary Martin Act to think about. The 2020 law — named after a Southwest Florida high school football player who collapsed from heat stroke and died 11 days later — requires schools to take measures to combat heat-related illnesses during athletic activities. If heat is bad enough for student athletes to get these protections, so should workers.

The Miami-Dade measure is set to come back, perhaps in March. But the way the Legislature is going, by then it may be too late.