Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings

Hot Topic: How States and Federal OSHA Are Responding to Extreme Heat

Theresa Jordan Leave a comment

By Beeta B. Lashkari and Andrea Chavez

As record-breaking temperatures continue to impact communities and workplaces across the country, heat illness prevention remains a top priority for regulators at both the federal and state levels.  Below is an update on recent legislative and regulatory developments aimed at protecting workers from the hazards of extreme heat.

Federal OSHA: Rulemaking Hearing and Legislation

On the Fed/OSHA level, the current debate revolves around, if a final rule is promulgated within the next 3.5 years, whether that standard should be more prescriptive, or more performance-oriented, than the current proposed rule as drafted.  The two updates below, regarding the rulemaking hearing, and new legislation that has recently been introduced, reflect this tension.

Rulemaking Hearing:  As we just reported, the public rulemaking hearing on Fed/OSHA’s proposed Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings rule recently concluded on July 2, 2025, after commencing on June 16, 2025.  Continue reading →

OSHA Heat Illness Rulemaking – Hearing Recap

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By Eric J. Conn and Beeta B. Lashkari

OSHA held its public rulemaking hearing on the proposed Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings standard from June 16 through July 2, 2025.   Below is a summary of the hearing and a brief discussion of what happens next.  Finalizing the daily hearing transcripts is underway, with transcripts being uploaded to the public docket for this rulemaking.

Who Spoke?

Members of industry, unions, academia, professional groups, and the public were all well represented at the hearing.  OSHA had approximately 325 individuals register to testify and ultimately received testimony from organizations such as AFL-CIO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, National Safety Council, American Society of Safety Professionals, United Auto Workers, American Chemistry Council, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, United Steelworkers, Edison Electric Institute, state/local representatives, members of the public, etc.  Here are links to a full list of those who registered as well as the final hearing schedule.

The OSHA panel was a mix of representatives from the Agency’s Directorate of Standards and Guidance and members of DOL’s Office of the Solicitor.  Each day, an Administrative Law Judge presided over the hearing.

What Did We Say and What Did OSHA Ask? Continue reading →

Fed OSHA Heat Illness Rulemaking – Next Steps for Employers Heat Illness Prevention Rulemaking Coalition

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By Eric J. Conn and Beeta B. Lashkari

We are providing an update on federal OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention rulemaking and hopefully starting a meaningful dialogue with the employer community about potential next steps for this controversial rulemaking.  Conn Maciel Carey’s national OSHA Practice organized the Employers Heat Illness Prevention Rulemaking Coalition in 2021, and has worked closely with industry leaders for the last five years to advocate to OSHA for a reasonable, flexible, performance-oriented Heat Standard through OSHA’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Small Business review process, and the notice-and-comment period for federal OSHA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) stage last year, with a comprehensive set of written comments.  We are engaging with Industry now to float our thoughts on potential paths forward, to see if employers and trade groups may be interested in joining the Employers Heat Illness Prevention Rulemaking Coalition now, with a new, unique opportunity to influence OSHA’s heat rulemaking.

Status of OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention Rulemaking

On December 2, 2024, former President Biden’s OSHA announced a public heat illness rulemaking hearing that will begin on June 16, 2025.  Last week, President Trump’s OSHA issued a press release stating that the Heat Injury and Illness public rulemaking hearing will proceed as scheduled.  Going through with the hearing will bring the proposed rule one step closer to final – essentially to the one-yard line.

Interestingly, the decision last year to schedule the hearing in June reflected, to us, an effort by the Biden Administration to maintain momentum for this rulemaking.  This maneuver placed the new Administration in a position where it had to take an affirmative action to stop the hearing, which could have drawn public criticism.  At the very least, it limited the ability of Pres. Trump’s OSHA to quietly sideline the heat illness rulemaking – if that was going to be its intention.  Hearing or no, we find it nearly impossible that OSHA will Continue reading →

Biden’s OSHA Pushes Heat Illness Prevention Rule Close to the Finish Line

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By Eric Conn, Beeta Lashkari and Darius Rohani-Shukla

On January 14, 2025, just six days before the transition from the Biden Administration to the second Trump Administration, OSHA closed the books on collecting public comments about the agency’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) for a Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings standard, taking the proposed rule one step (perhaps a very long step now) away from issuing a final Heat Standard. On behalf of the Employers Heat Illness Prevention Coalition, we submitted a robust set of written comments detailing our concerns about some of the more onerous and rigid aspects of the proposed rule.

Although OSHA has now moved the Heat Rulemaking so close to the finish line, it is likely that the finish line will be pushed back, potentially for at least four years.  We do not expect Trump’s OSHA to engage in much, if any, rulemaking activity, other than de-regulatory actions. From a process standpoint though, the next time there is a Democrat in the White House, OSHA would inherit this flawed proposed rule and could issue it without having to navigate through any of the rigors of Administrative Procedure Act notice-and-comment rulemaking (i.e., there will not be another Small Business Advocacy Review (“SBAR”) Panel, or another NPRM and public comment period).  So, that written comment period was one of the last chances for stakeholders to submit written comments about a proposed federal heat illness prevention standard.

Below we provide a history of the rulemaking, an outline of key requirements in the proposed rule, a high-level summary of the comments submitted by our Employers Rulemaking Coalition,  our thoughts on the upcoming public rulemaking hearing, and a reminder about OSHA’s Heat National Enforcement Program (“NEP”), since, before you know it, summer temperatures will be here again.

Continue reading →

Trump 2.0, OSHA: Expect Shifts in Federal Enforcement and Rulemaking Priorities As Well As More Aggressive State Plan Enforcement

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By Scott Hecker, Rachel L. Conn, Eric J. Conn, and Aaron R. Gelb

As the dust settles on the 2024 Election Cycle and the pundits continue analyzing and dissecting the results, the OSHA/MSHA Team at Conn Maciel Carey draws from decades of experience representing employers during Republican and Democratic administrations to forecast how the workplace safety and health landscape may change with respect to enforcement, compliance assistance, and rulemaking under a second Trump Administration.

Enforcement Resources and Priorities

At the federal level, history can provide insight into the likely priorities of a second Trump term.  As loyal readers of this blog know, OSHA operated without a confirmed Assistant Secretary for the entirety of the first Trump Administration.  While agencies lacking Senate-confirmed leaders can feel adrift and directionless, with confusion about roles, responsibilities, and priorities, it was essentially business as usual at OSHA under Trump—at least until COVID-19 hit—with other agencies facing more focused efforts to deregulate.  While it is not yet clear how quickly the second Trump Administration will turn its sights to OSHA, we’re unlikely to see a push to increase OSHA’s budget or even to backfill enforcement personnel who leave the agency.  OSHA had the fewest compliance officers in its history during the Trump Administration, and despite efforts by President Biden to increase staffing levels, the number of enforcement personnel is sure to ebb again.  Fewer compliance officers will lead to decreased enforcement activity, as well as overwhelming workloads for remaining employees, and such a combination often results in reduced morale.

OSHA under Trump 2.0 is likely to adopt more employer-friendly policies than President Biden’s current administration and could: Continue reading →

Update On OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention Rulemaking – Join CMC’s Rulemaking Coalition for the Final Phase

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By Beeta B. Lashkari, Eric J. Conn, and Kate M. McMahon

Unsurprisingly, as temperatures rise, activity on OSHA’s Outdoor and Indoor Heat Illness Prevention rulemaking is heating up, too.  On May 8, 2024, OSHA announced that it is moving closer to publishing a proposed Heat Illness Rule for U.S. workers in both outdoor and indoor settings.  Indeed, timing-wise, Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su told lawmakers at a May 1st House oversight hearing that OSHA expects to release a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking advancing its long-awaited heat injury and illness prevention standard “later this year.”

Background

The good news is, even before a proposed rule has been issued, we are already seeing the effective work of our employers rulemaking coalition pay off.  As a reminder, Conn Maciel Carey has organized and led a diverse coalition of national employers and trade associations representing many industries, from construction and energy, to manufacturing, petroleum refining and chemical manufacturing, retailers and grocers, utilities, warehousing, and many more.  We have had a prominent “seat at the table” in this rulemaking from the get-go.  During what we called “Phase One” of OSHA’s heat illness rulemaking, in January of 2022, we Continue reading →

OSHA’s Heat Illness Rulemaking Update – Recent NACOSH Meetings

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By Eric J. Conn and Beeta B. Lashkari

OSHA’s rulemaking for an outdoor and indoor heat illness prevention rule continues to chug along, so we wanted to provide a quick review of the latest developments.  Of particular note, two meetings of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety & Health (NACOSH) focused on heat illness and the heat illness rulemaking were held on June 30th.  Conn Maciel Carey’s Employers Heat Illness Prevention Coalition participated in both. 

Here is a copy of the as-filed comments we submitted to OSHA in advance of these NACOSH meetings, reiterating our previously submitted comments, and requesting to speak at the June 30th NACOSH meeting (which request was granted).

The meetings were well attended by NACOSH committee members and OSHA staff, and included appearances from Andy Levinson (Acting Director, OSHA Directorate of Standards and Guidance), Lisa Long (Acting Deputy Director, OSHA Directorate of Standards and Guidance), Carla Marcellus (Office of Maritime and Agriculture), and Jennifer Levin (Committee Counsel, Office of the Solicitor).  Kate McMahon and Beeta Lashkari attended on behalf of our Coalition.  The first meeting was for public listening only, and Kate was one of only two public stakeholders who spoke at the second meeting, and the only employers’ representative to do so.

Here are the key takeaways from the two meetings, as well as a summary of the public statements we made to the NACOSH committee:  Continue reading →

Coalition to Work on OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention Rulemaking

Eric J. Conn 4 Comments

By Eric J. Conn, Chair of Conn Maciel Carey LLP’s National OSHA Practice

While we and employers across the nation have been focused on OSHA’s issuance of its second COVID-19 emergency temporary standard in six months, earlier this month, OSHA published in the Federal Register an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking initiating a new formal rulemaking focused on “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings” (the ANPRM).  The ANPRM provided this summary of OSHA’s action:

“OSHA is initiating rulemaking to protect indoor and outdoor workers from hazardous heat and is interested in obtaining additional information about the extent and nature of hazardous heat in the workplace and the nature and effectiveness of interventions and controls used to prevent heat-related injury and illness. This ANPRM provides an overview of the problem of heat stress in the workplace and of measures that have been taken to prevent it. This ANPRM also seeks information on issues that OSHA can consider in developing the standard, including the scope of the standard and the types of controls that might be required.”

And while everyone still has most of our focus on OSHA’s Vaccination, Testing, and Face Coverings emergency temporary standard, it is critical that those industries and employers potentially impacted by an OSHA heat illness regulation focus on this important active agency rulemaking.  In fact, long after COVID-19 is a just bad memory in the rearview mirror, a heat illness standard will have lasting and potentially enormous impacts on your organization.

To that end, Conn Maciel Carey LLP is organizing a new fee-based coalition of employers and trade groups to participate in OSHA’s Indoor and Outdoor Heat Illness Rulemaking with a goal of helping to shape any heat standard that OSHA ultimately promulgates in such a way that the rule is palatable to Industry. Continue reading →