There is a new plan to finalize the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Heat Standard. The proposed Heat Standard applies to indoor and outdoor workplaces causing significant new compliance burdens and red tape on nearly all small businesses nationwide. Small businesses oppose this mandate and NFIB released a statement with concerns.

Small businesses are already required to prevent temperature-related harm to employees. This standard punishes small businesses with more paperwork and unreasonable government mandates including:

• Providing 15-minute breaks every two hours 

• actively monitoring workers for signs of heat illness 

• retaining records for at least 6 months of employee break and workplace temperature data 

• Adding new paperwork and training requirements 

Especially in warmer climate states, this is an extreme burden on small businesses on top of measures already taken to provide a safe work environment.

Learn more about the full requirements of this new mandate, what NFIB members are saying, and how to take action to stop this from being finalized.