Compliance Alert: New Cal/OSHA Indoor Heat Regulations

Cooler weather does not mean goodbye to heat illness concerns for employers.

With the state’s unprecedented breaking temperatures in recent years, the California Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) has adopted regulations on heat illness prevention in indoor places of employment, which went into effect on July 23, 2024.

The new safety regulations apply to all indoor work areas, including but not limited to restaurants, factories, and warehouses, where the temperature equals or exceeds 82ºF when employees are present. The regulations do not apply to employees working from home.

Employer Obligations

To comply with the new regulations, employers must do the following:

1. Provide Access to Potable Drinking Water: Water must be fresh and suitably cool, free of charge, and located in areas where employees are working. If water is not supplied continuously (i.e., through pipes), enough must be provided at the beginning of the work shift to provide one quart of water per hour per employee for the entire shift. Employers may provide smaller quantities of water if they replenish the water during the shift to allow employees to drink one quart or more per hour. Employers should encourage employees to drink water frequently.

2. Provide Access to Cool-Down Areas: Employers must have one or more cool-down areas at all times while employees are present, which is maintained at less than 82ºF and large enough to accommodate the number of employees who take their rest periods or meal periods on site. Employers must encourage employees to take a preventative cool-down rest in a cool-down area if needed. Employees who do so must:

• Be monitored and asked if they are experiencing symptoms of heat illness;
• Be encouraged to remain in the cool-down area; and
• Not be ordered back to work until all signs or symptoms of heat illness are gone and have been in cool-down area for at least five minutes

3. Implement Emergency Response Procedures: Employers must implement effective emergency response procedures to ensure employees can contact a supervisor or emergency medical services when necessary. If reception in the area is reliable, cell phones may be used to call or text in an emergency. The procedures must include guidance for responding to signs or symptoms of heat illness, including that the employee must not be left alone or sent home without being offered first aid and/or provided with emergency medical services, and must ensure that clear and precise directions to the worksite will be provided to emergency responders.

4. Acclimatization: Where no effective engineering tools are in use to control indoor temperature, employers must closely observe employees during a heat wave. They must also closely observe, for the first 14 days, employees newly assigned to work areas where:

• The temperature or heat index, whichever is greater, equals or exceeds 87ºF; or
• The temperature equals or exceeds 82ºF for employees who wear clothing that restricts heat removal; or
• The temperature equals or exceeds 87ºF in a high radiant heat area.

5. Training: Employers must implement training in heat illness prevention to both employees and supervisors.

6. Heat Illness Prevention Plan: Employers must establish, implement, and maintain an effective Heat Illness Prevention Plan (HIPP), in English and the language understood by most employees. The HIPP may be included as part of the employer’s Injury and Illness Prevention Plan (IIPP) and must be available at the worksite.

Takeaway

“Preventative cool-down rest period” has the same meaning as “recovery period” in California Labor Code subsection 226.7(a), meaning that for each day hourly employees are deprived of their legally required breaks, employers must pay them for an additional hour of work at their regular rate of pay.

Duggan McHugh attorneys are here to assist businesses with compliance with the new indoor heat safety regulations.