The Department of Finance's approval of economic impact documents is among the final steps needed before the heat rules can be formally approved and implemented.

The meeting was the latest misstep in a string of mistakes and delays.

In 2006, California became the first state in the nation to implement heat standards for outdoor workers, requiring that employers provide access to shade and water and guarantee the right to take preventive cool-down rests when workers need them. In temperatures of 95 degrees or higher, employers are required to remind workers of safe practices, encourage breaks and drinking of water, and observe them for signs or symptoms of heat illness.

As reports surfaced of brutal conditions affecting warehouse workers' health, the California Legislature in 2016 directed Cal/OSHA to develop an indoor heat standard by 2019.

Agency staff met the deadline, drafting proposed rules that were based on the existing outdoor heat regulations, but bureaucratic requirements and sluggish movement by various state bodies bogged down the process in subsequent years.

A study of the proposed rules that state law required be done by the Department of Finance, for example, was slowed when two contractors were hired to complete the same assessment — extending the process by at least a year and a half, according to a recent CalMatters report examining the delays.

Cal/OSHA's standards board did not hold its first public hearing on the indoor heat regulation until May 2023. At that hearing, workers urged the board to swiftly adopt a set of safety rules, but instead the board revised the proposed measures three more times, delaying implementation by another year.

Workers compensation data show that between 2010 and 2018 an average of 185 workers a year claimed injuries from indoor heat, according to a 2021 report by Rand Corp. that analyzed proposed indoor heat rules. In California, 20 workers died from heat illness between 2010 and 2017, seven of them because of indoor heat, the report said.

In recent years, as the state has experienced record-breaking heatwaves, cooks at fast food chains, warehouse workers and delivery drivers have repeatedly raised concerns about high temperatures.

Amid one heatwave in 2022, workers at an Amazon air freight hub in San Bernardino took it upon themselves to document temperatures throughout the facility. Workers recorded indoor temperatures as high as 89 inside the facility, climbing to 96 in cargo planes and tractor trailers.

An Amazon spokeswoman, Mary Kate McCarthy Paradis, at the time called the findings "misleading, or simply inaccurate."

In July 2023, workers at the hub lodged a formal complaint with Cal/OSHA. In January, Cal/OSHA cited Amazon with a $14,625 penalty for failing to provide adequate water or shade for cool-down breaks. The agency did not cite Amazon for safety violations indoors.

Sara Fee, a former warehouse worker at the San Bernardino facility, said during public comment at the Thursday meeting that she was deeply worried about the impact of delaying implementation of the standard.

"I know that further delay is going to cause injury and death this summer," Fee said. She urged Cal/OSHA to take action. "Anything you can do to protect workers is needed."

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.