Good News for Outdoor Workers

Starting this Week, Workers can Breathe a Little Easier

Just in time for fire season, Oregon’s workplace safety agency, OSHA, has adopted new rules to protect agricultural and other outdoor workers from excessive heat and wildfire smoke.

This helps one of Oregon’s most crucial yet underserved dynamic…agricultural workers, many of them contractors, who work and live in high-level smoke conditions and under the constant threat of wildfire.

The agency's heat rule requires employers to provide workers access to shade, cool water, breaks and training. 

It triggers when the heat index passes 80 degrees and adds additional oversights when the heat index reaches 90 degrees. 

The wildfire smoke rule commands employees to address workers' exposure to smoke and unhealthy air by monitoring air quality and providing training to employees.

The heat rules take effect this week, June 15; the wildfire rules July 1. 

And this isn’t  just window dressing.

Both rules are the most protective of their kind in the country, OSHA officials said, and reflect the need to strengthen protections in the workplace while "focusing on the needs of Oregon's most vulnerable communities."

Both rules encompass initial protective measures for workers who rely on employer-provided housing, including as part of farm operations.

They build on temporary emergency requirements that were adopted last year following a historic heat wave and the tragic death of Sebastian Francisco Perez, a nursery worker who had recently arrived from Guatemala and died laboring under 104-degree heat.

“With these new rules from Oregon OSHA, I am proud that Oregon will be a national model for heat and wildfire smoke protections for all workers, regardless of income level, occupation, or immigration status," Gov. Kate Brown said in a statement.

Let’s hope that others, unlike Sebastian Perez, receive the help and refreshment they need after laboring in very demanding – yet very uncelebrated – jobs.

Sebastian’s Law, anyone?