Employers should prepare for heat-related workplace inspections from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under a new program designed to protect indoor and outdoor workers from heat illness and injuries.
“For years, the agency investigated complaints of heat stress and heat illness and investigated hospitalizations and fatalities resulting from heat-related illness in the workplace,” said Melanie Paul, an attorney with Jackson Lewis in Atlanta. “These efforts have been mostly reactive. Now, OSHA intends to ramp up outreach and enforcement in an effort to eliminate heat hazards in the work environment with the new proactive initiative.”
