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New York Workers Left to Sweat After TEMP Act Dies in Albany

The NY State Legislature ended its session without passing the TEMP Act, a bill that would regulate extreme temperatures in workplaces.

Amir Khafagy

Jun 24, 2025

Haitian and Mexican immigrants work long days on this farm in Upstate, NY. Long sleeves, hats, and scarves protect them from the dangers of the sun, pesticides and bugs. Photo: Arleen Thaler, 2018

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As the summer kicks off with yet another record-breaking heat wave, working New Yorkers who toil under extreme heat conditions are going to have to wait to get some relief. 

Last week, the New York Legislature ended its summer session without passing the Temp Act, a bill that would have provided workers legal protections from extreme temperatures. Introduced by New York State Senator Jessica Ramos in 2024, the legislation requires employers in agriculture, construction, landscaping, shipping, food service, and warehousing to adhere to heat-specific standards for employees in outdoor and indoor worksites that experience a heat stress threshold of eighty degrees Fahrenheit or more. 

Charlene Obernaue, executive director of New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, who was one of the bill’s main supporters, called out lawmakers for what she views as a capitulation to the Trump administration. 

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“I am deeply frustrated and disappointed that during the past legislative session, New York legislative leaders failed the workers who needed protection most,” she said. “While the Trump Administration moves to eliminate federal workplace heat protections, Albany Democratic leadership had the opportunity to step up for nearly 2 million New York workers and chose not to act.”

The law mandates that employers provide training to all employees about the warning signs and symptoms of heat illness and heat-related first aid. Workers would also be protected from retaliation if they report unsafe temperature conditions or refuse to work under such conditions. 

In a statement shared with Documented, Sen. Ramos said that workers are suffering preventable injuries as the state fails to pass the bill. “The TEMP Act is our rallying call for New York to finally protect workers from deadly heat,” said Sen. Ramos. “We’re organizing with advocates, unions, and workers across New York to demand bold action. We won’t stop until the Legislature turns down the heat.”

With the rise in global temperatures, heat-related injuries at workplaces are also on the rise. A report from the International Labour Organization found that in 2020, 4,200 workers globally lost their lives due to extreme heat. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 479 workers in the U.S. died from heat exposure between 2011 and 2022. There were another 33,890 estimated heat-related injuries recorded between 2011 and 2020.

In New York City alone, 580 people die from heat-related causes annually, according to a recent report from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. Data from the New York State Insurance Fund shows that on days over 80°F, workplace injuries resulting in claims rose by 45%. Heat stress-related injuries are also disproportionately affecting immigrant workers who are often employed in outdoor, physically demanding industries like agriculture and construction. Workers in New York, like immigrant airport ground crews, have already been sounding the alarm about their unsafe working conditions during the summer heat. 

Comptroller Lander also released a report in 2024 that found that a third of the city’s workforce works outdoors for prolonged periods, with a vast majority of those workers being non-citizen immigrants. Backed by a coalition of workers’ rights groups, lawmakers, and unions like 32BJ SEIU, the Temp Act was a response to the increased danger workers faced on an increasingly warming planet.

“Extreme heat poses a real and daily risk to essential workers, from cleaners spending hours in unairconditioned worksites, to baggage handlers lifting heavy luggage all day,” said Rob Hill, 32BJ SEIU executive vice president and head of the airports division in a statement to Documented. “Without basic protections, workers can get sick and even die. It’s clear New York needs the TEMP Act. And while we remain deeply concerned about the state of workers now, we will continue to push for these protections during the next legislative session.” 

In 2024, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) moved to address the issue of workplace heat-related injury by proposing new standards that would require employers to create a plan to address workplace heat hazards. It also outlined clear obligations for employers to protect employees from hazardous heat.

However, in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that effectively put a pause on OSHA’s implementation of its proposed heat rule. Without federal worker protections, state lawmakers and advocates were hoping that the passage of the Temp Act would make up for it, yet the bill faced opposition from employer groups such as the influential New York Farm Bureau, which opposed the bill because it feared it would saddle farmers with “unreasonable responsibilities” and would negatively impact “their profit margin.

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“The TEMP Act, in an attempt to regulate worker activity on the job site when outdoor temperature exceeds 80 degrees, would add an unnecessary burden to farmers and agriculture-adjacent businesses as it would force them to document each time workers performed their duties in these conditions,” said Renée St. Jacques, New York Farm Bureau Acting Director of Public Policy in a statement to Documented. 

Jacques stressed that farmers already take care to provide shade, cooling, and water to their employees.

“Farmers want their employees to be as comfortable as possible, but mandating documentation of such provisions would be just another administrative hurdle,” he said. “We look forward to working with legislators this summer to amend the legislation in a way that satisfies both farm employers and employees.”

For Lander, relying on the goodwill of employers for heat protections is not enough, and government action is essential to ensuring safer workplaces.

“With workplace deaths from extreme heat on the rise — and the Trump administration’s callous attempts to roll back protections on the federal level — it’s extremely frustrating that the state failed to act this legislative session,” he said in a statement to Documented. “The TEMP Act was New York’s chance to join the status quo alongside states like California, Washington, and Oregon, which already have laws that provide heat protections in the workplace. Instead, we’re falling behind.”

Amir Khafagy

Amir Khafagy is an award-winning New York City-based journalist. He is currently a Report for America corps member with Documented. Much of Amir's beat explores the intersections of labor, race, class, and immigration.

@AmirKhafagy91

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