Daniel Rivera works eight to 10-hour shifts at an Amazon air hub in San Bernardino, a 658,500 square-foot building where workers help move thousands of packages a day via the company’s cargo airline.
Rivera said he has to work at a fast pace (Amazon uses algorithms to monitor worker productivity) in an environment that regularly reaches the high 70s and high 80s — and at times higher, according to a report by the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a nonprofit that focuses on the warehouse industry in Southern California.
Employees, including Rivera, took heat measurements while working their shifts during last year’s record heat wave in early September.
“I've suffered multiple symptoms such as nosebleeds because of heat illnesses,” Rivera said at a recent California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) hearing about establishing a new indoor heat standard. “I had to look out for myself. Amazon didn't do anything.”
Rivera is among dozens of workers from the Inland Empire region who testified at a hearing held May 18 to demand stronger rules to protect indoor workers from extreme heat.
California has rules that require employers to provide a reasonably safe workplace, as well as specific rules requiring employers to take certain actions to protect workers from extreme heat while working outside. However, there aren’t rules around extreme heat for indoor workers who may have to work without sufficient air conditioning or ventilation.
Workers say more protections are needed, especially as the climate crisis drives longer and more extreme heat waves. That heat is some of the worst in the Inland Empire, which has seen a boom in warehouses in recent years.
“It's a cycle that's not going to stop until we put a real standard in place,” Rivera said. “Another summer without these protections will put too many of us workers in danger. Current and future workers need this heat standard to be put in place.”
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As soon as 2036, communities in San Bernardino could experience at least 27 more extreme heat days, or days when temperatures are 105 degrees or higher, according to the county's climate vulnerability assessment. From 1961 to 1990, the county experienced an average of four days when it got that hot.
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Cities such as Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, and Ontario are likely to see some of the biggest temperature increases. Places such as Victorville could see as many as 50 more extreme heat days in a year.
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Already one of the hottest and driest areas of California, Riverside County is likely to see its daily average high temperatures increase by 8 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit by mid-century. The Coachella Valley and the communities near Indio, Palm Springs and Palm Desert will see the biggest temperature increases.
Increasing indoor heat illness
From 2000 to 2017, there were about 16,000 cases of serious heat illness, such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion and even death among California workers, according to research by the California Department of Public Health. About 20% of those cases occurred indoors, though the numbers could be higher since heat illness is often underreported. The number of cases is far higher than what Bureau of Labor Statistics consistently estimated.
And indoor heat injury claims have been going up every year since 2010, according to an analysis by the California Department of Industrial Relations and Cal/OSHA.
“Current regulations are not adequately addressing heat illness prevention in indoor places of employment and demonstrates the urgency for addressing this occupational hazard,” the agency writes in its proposed new indoor heat standards. “Some requirements to prevent indoor heat illnesses currently exist, but have not been effective in reducing the number of heat illnesses associated with indoor high-heat environments.”
That’s a particular worry for warehouse workers in the Inland Empire, which has seen a boom in Amazon warehouses in recent years.
Amazon says it uses industrial fans and heat safety training to protect its workers.
Current heat rules for outdoor workers
California has more stringent protections around extreme heat for outdoor workers, largely as a result of decades of advocacy by farmworkers and their allies.
Those rules require employers to initiate specific plans, such as increasing breaks and providing shade and water, for outdoor workers when temperatures reach 80 degrees. Still, enforcing those standards remains a challenge.
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All workers in California, regardless of legal status, have a right to a hazard-free work environment and a right to refuse hazardous work without retaliation from their employer. While these are the general rules, extreme heat can be included as Cal/OSHA continues rulemaking for specific extreme heat guidelines in indoor workplaces.
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Read more on your rights as a worker in California
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File a confidential complaint with Cal/OSHA here
Slow progress for indoor heat rule
A similar standard for indoor work environments has yet to be established. In 2016, Cal/OSHA was mandated by the state to develop a rule for adoption by 2019. That hasn’t happened.
Since 2017, the agency has held three public proceedings to hear from industry and workers across the state, but warehouse workers and their lawyers say the process has moved far too slowly, especially as the climate crisis continues to accelerate and a hotter-than-normal summer is expected this year.
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According to Cal/OSHA, the slow progress is due to the complexity of the rulemaking process and the impact of the pandemic; but now it can’t be sped up since it must adhere to the Administrative Procedures Act.
Tim Shadix, legal director with the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, sees another reason.
“If we had the political will to get this in faster, I think we could do so or it could have been done already,” Shadix told LAist. “Every week that we don't have [an indoor heat standard] is just a tragedy that's condemning warehouse workers and others to continue to work in this danger.”
Indoor draft rules still need work, some say
Though there are some differences in temperature thresholds, the draft indoor rule draws on the outdoor heat regulations in that it emphasizes frequently drinking water, resting in cool protected areas whenever necessary, requiring employers to reduce the risk of heat illness via “cool-down areas” and other strategies, and training employers and employees to recognize the signs of heat illness and how to prevent it.
Some specifics of the draft indoor rule include:
- Requiring employers to lower the temperature when indoor temperatures meet or exceed 82 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Requiring employers to establish “cool-down areas.”
- If lowering the temperature isn’t possible, at 87 degrees employers are required to establish more breaks, slow down pace of work, change time of work, and other work practices to protect worker health.
But according to workers who testified at the hearing, those temperature thresholds aren’t strong enough.
“We are in constant motion throughout the day,” said at the hearing Sara Fee, who also works at the Amazon air hub in San Bernardino. “I have been nauseous, dizzy … our walk to a cool-down area is more than half the length of the warehouse. I need cool water in close proximity and I need a place to cool down that's not half a mile away.”
Shadix said workers are want, among other things:
- The overall threshold to start at 78 degrees and the higher threshold to be 85 degrees.
- An increase in required, rather than recommended, breaks at those thresholds.
- Stronger protections for workers to ask for breaks or other support when feeling the impacts of the heat.
“Most people would be pretty uncomfortable in a room at even 80 degrees for a full day, even if they're just sitting doing office work,” Shadix said. “Never mind if you are doing very physically intensive work, like lifting boxes that are over 50 pounds, constantly working and scanning items.”
Cal/OSHA changed the requirement from 80 to 82 degrees “due to stakeholder concerns that having the regulation apply when the temperature reaches 80 degrees Fahrenheit would run counter to companies’ efforts to conserve energy,” according to a document from the agency.
What’s next
Cal/OSHA is expected to respond to comments on the draft rule by June 18. They expect to vote on the final rule early next year.
But enforcement will remain a challenge. Cal/OSHA doesn’t have the staff or resources to needed to enforce its rules.
California and other states have petitioned federal officials to establish temporary emergency standards to protect workers by this summer.
