Last week in New York alongside workers’ unions, community organisations, City agency commissioners and workers, Mayor Zoran Mamdani signed an Executive Order directing a whole-of-government response to protect workers from extreme heat. The order builds on New York City’s existing Beat the Heat program for residents by extending similar attention and resources to ensuring workers are protected from rising temperatures, with record heat projected to hit the city this week and beyond.
“No-one should have to choose between their pay check and their health,” said Mayor Mamdani. “In the past workers have borne the burden of rising temperatures while government and employers have looked the other way.”
The order directs the development and distribution of multilingual heat safety guidance for outdoor workers as soon as practicable this year and reinforces existing protections for outdoor workers, including access to bathrooms for delivery workers and workplace reporting requirements. Guidance for indoor workers will be issued by March 2027. The order also requires the development of heat illness prevention plans for city employees and contractors.
The Order’s focus on NY construction workers, also requires the Department of Buildings (DOB), in consultation with unions and other employee organizations, to “conduct a review of current construction safety and training requirements to determine if existing construction safety requirements sufficiently protect against worker heat illness.” If the review finds problems, “DOB may issue recommendations for new construction safety and training guidance, or other relevant actions.”
Although the Executive Order does not introduce any new laws or regulations, it will provide a full review of actions withing the public and private sectors, look at every rule and is enforces and implemented, determine which new provisions need to be introduced and focus on enforcing existing rules that have been rarely enforced adequately.
More than 1.4 million New Yorkers (one third of the city’s workforce) spend extended periods working outdoors each summer, including construction workers, day labourers, street vendors, delivery workers, truck drivers and warehouse workers. Heat contributes to the death of 500 people in Ney York each year, making it one of the most lethal weather-related hazards facing the city’s residents.
The health consequences of extreme heat fall hardest on New York’s most vulnerable workers – black workers die of heatstroke at twice the rate of white workers, and Latino workers are disproportionately employed on constructions sites and in warehouses, making extreme heat at work not just a health and safety issue, but also an issue of justice.
“Heat has taken the lives of more New Yorkers than any other weather hazard, and the workers most exposed to it deserve real protection,” said NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Christina Farrell. “NYCEM coordinates the city’s heat response every summer, and under this Executive Order we will work alongside out partners to develop heat safety guidance, deliver it in the languages New Yorkers speak, and keep the public informed. This is a city and administration choosing to lead on protecting its workers, and Emergency Management is proud to be part of that work.”
Along with the measures to ensure the health and safety of workers in New York City during extreme heat events, the Mayor’s office has activated a heat emergency plan for all residents. Under the plan, the city is taking expansive action to activate hundreds of cooling centres and cool options, intensify outreach and support to vulnerable New Yorkers such as the homeless and older adults and ready New Yorkers for the heat.
Cooling Outreach On-Location (COOL) vans, operated by NYC Health + Hospitals, will provide mobile cooling resources directed to the vulnerable residents. The vans provide wellness checks, medical care, water and other supplies such as electrolytes and sunscreen, as well as transport to cooling centres or healthcare facilities. COOL vans will also be dispatched to perform in-home wellness checks on older adults. Pop-up cooling stations will be expanded through partnerships with community-based organizations with cold water, misting fans and cooling towels for outdoor workers including street vendors, delivery drivers/riders and day labourers working in the heat, and more than 2,200 LinkNYC Kiosks will display real-time walking directions to the nearest cooling centres.
Although summer seems like a distant memory here in Victoria, now is the best time to begin having conversations in your workplace about managing the impact of heat. Excessive heat is a health and safety hazard. Working in hot conditions can result in a number of adverse health effects, ranging from discomfort to serious illness and even death – your employer has a duty to eliminate the hazard or reduce the risk it presents to workers.
In Victoria there are no specific legislated limits on the temperature to which workers can be exposed. But that doesn't mean that you can't do anything regarding excessive heat in the workplace - your employer is expected to prevent your workplace from being uncomfortably hot. Your employer has a duty of care under the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act (2004) to provide a healthy and safe workplace. If you believe that heat may become an issue for your workplace next summer, you can find more information at our Heat: When is it too hot - OHS Reps page, including an Action plan for HSRs. WorkSafe also publishes guidance for employers at Working in heat | WorkSafe Victoria.