After last-minute objections from state officials thwarted plans to implement protections for workers in hot warehouses and other indoor facilities, California’s workplace safety agency is trying again to adopt the measures before the summer heat arrives.
At a March 21 meeting, the state board overseeing workplace safety standards was primed to approve the landmark regulations. Shortly before the start of the meeting, however, officials from the state’s Finance Department, which must sign off on new workplace rules, intervened. They raised concerns about the costs that California prisons and other public entities would incur trying to adhere to the new rules, saying the price tag for cooling correctional facilities could run “in the neighborhood of billions of dollars.”
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.