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City Council approves heat protections for outdoor workers
"If an employer cannot figure out how to provide workers with access to water and shade during a heat wave, we don’t want them doing business in Boston."
The Boston City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that intends to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat.
The ordinance will require companies with outdoor workers to create heat illness and injury prevention plans, City Councilor Benjamin Weber said.
Weber originally filed the ordinance in 2024 and then refiled it this year after making the changes recommended in two working sessions. “All heat illness prevention plans would still be required to allow for appropriate opportunities for shade, water, and rest,” he said, “but these plans can now be tailored better for specific tasks” based on the type of work being done.
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The plans will be created for police officers through union negotiations and for civilian workers through collective bargaining between stakeholders and the city’s Office of Labor Relations, according to Weber.
With the passage of the ordinance, city and worker representatives have six months to create the plans so they can take effect in summer 2026, Weber said.
“If an employer cannot figure out how to provide workers with access to water and shade during a heat wave, we don’t want them doing business in Boston,” he continued.
The ordinance was inspired by the increasing number of hot days Boston is experiencing each summer.
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With the entire city being a heat island, Weber said, “the number of days in Boston over 90 degrees will increase from a historical average of 10 days per year to as many as 46 days per year by the 2070s.”
“Despite what we might hear from the Trump administration, climate change is real,” he added. “The impact on Boston’s workers is already being felt.”
Due to the increasing impact heat has on Boston and its residents, the city launched a heat resilience initiative to create equitable solutions to the heat with the city experiencing more hot days and nights in the last decade than it did in the previous five.
“As climate change drives record-breaking heat waves, workers in construction, landscaping, sanitation, transportation, and the outdoor industries are increasingly at risk of serious illness or even death,” said City Councilor Henry Santana, who spoke in support of the ordinance.
Weber added, “Across the country, heat-related illness is the leading cause of weather-related death for workers. Moreover, experts say that heat-related illness is very underreported because it works like a silent killer.”
Across the country, there is no “standard for protecting workers from the impacts of extreme heat,” despite research, Weber said.
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“This ordinance helps Boston become a model employer in the region and ensures that Boston will continue to be a place that puts worker safety at the top of our demands for employers,” he said.
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