Government Help Isn't On The Way For Texas Construction Workers Dealing With Rising Temps

As Houstonians get ready to celebrate a balmy Thanksgiving, the climate change-fueled rise in temperatures is hard to ignore.

Heat has long been a particular threat to construction workers in Houston, the most dangerous American city for laborers. Now, that threat seems to be worsening, and worker advocates are wondering whether the state or federal government will pass stricter regulations protecting some of the country's most vital workers.

So far, signs aren't encouraging that the government is coming to the rescue. That has left contractors, construction companies and employees on their own to keep workers safe and avoid lost productivity due to heat-related illness.

Texas lawmakers will reconvene in January, the same month President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. Texas legislators have made local ordinances requiring heat protection measures for construction workers illegal, while the Trump administration has signaled it will abandon a heat safety rule proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 

“The last couple years have been the hottest on record,” said Jill Rosenthal, director of public health policy at the Center for American Progress, a self-described progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. 

“2024 is anticipated to be even hotter overall. So as temperatures increase and we see more heat-related injury, illness and death, there’s an increasing need to have protections for workers.”

Trump ran on a deregulatory agenda, and the OSHA rule is in limbo and not expected to move forward. Meanwhile, Texas has shown no signs of joining the six states that have passed regulations to protect construction workers from heat, Rosenthal said.

“Now that we see temperatures rising, it’s more and more important,” she said. “I do have fears that we will move in the wrong direction.”

Every day in November has brought above-average temperatures to the Houston area, and the first nine days of the month averaged 13.7 degrees above historical norms for this time of year. Four high-temperature records were set in October.

With the World Meteorological Organization predicting the average global temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels for at least one of the next five years, hotter days could become the norm. 

That's significant because heat is the leading national cause of weather-related fatalities by far, accounting for 207 in 2023, well above the 30-year annual average of 183. From 1992 to 2016, construction workers accounted for 36% of occupational heat-related deaths while making up just 6% of the workforce.

The trend is exemplified in Houston, which could have an average of 55 days a year of temperatures exceeding 100 degrees if greenhouse gas emissions aren't reduced, according to a city-commissioned study. Houston Health Department data shows outdoor work was the top reason patients were admitted to the ER for heat-related illness in 2022. 

Construction company Skanska tries to prevent heat illness through education, training and being “your brother’s keeper,” Skanska Environmental Health Safety Director Reggie Asare said.

“It takes some time for the body to acclimate to the rising heat temperatures,” Asare said. “We usually see a spike of heat-related incidents around the month of May and June. So that's when we start with having conversations and ensuring that we get out there. We're looking out for one another and implementing controls in place to help and protect them.” 

While the implementation of heat protection measures is ultimately up to the lead contractor, Skanska helps to provide shade, rest stations and large fans with freon to cool its workers, Asare said. Skanska also recommends they take 15-minute breaks every hour or hour and a half, he said.

Skanska likely wouldn’t be impacted by any new state or federal regulations, as it already goes above and beyond them, but Asare said regulations could help bring consistency across the industry and make guidelines easier to enforce.

“In terms of standardization throughout the market, there's some good to it,” he said. “But we're always trying to be ahead of the curve, proactive.” 

Heat-induced declines in labor productivity account for $100B in losses annually in the U.S. Without action, those losses could reach $200B by 2030 and $500B by 2050, the Center for American Progress reported. 

The OSHA rule up for expiration under Trump would implement heat control measures at or above an “initial heat trigger,” a heat index of about 80 degrees. Those measures would include providing employees cool drinking water, break areas with cooling measures and paid rest breaks if needed to prevent overheating. 

The rule would also implement additional control measures at or above the “high heat trigger,” or a heat index of about 90 degrees. That would require mandatory rest breaks of 15 minutes at least every two hours, the rule says.

Houston had a heat index of 90 degrees Monday, above the norm for mid-November, according to the National Weather Service. 

Worker advocates had been looking to the new OSHA rule to provide protections for Texas workers exposed to the heat since Texas House Bill 2127 last year repealed any local government protections that were stronger than the state’s. 

But it is reasonable to assume that the proposed OSHA rule “is DOA” under the Trump administration, Phillip Russell, OSHA and employment lawyer for law firm Ogletree Deakins in Washington, D.C., told Construction Dive.

The OSHA rule has faced criticism that it was overly burdensome and too detailed to set employers up for success, Russell said.

It is difficult to implement a “one-size-fits-all” rule for the construction industry, said Sergio Terreros, president of the Houston-based National Association of Hispanic Contractors. The association works to educate its members about the dangers of heat and sees heat protection as a team effort, he said.

Skanska takes a similar approach, as it teaches its employees to watch out for each other, Asare said.

“It starts with people actually knowing what the signs are, and then being able to identify them as they're working each and every day,” he said.

An example would be if a person is sweating while they’re working, then they stop sweating but continue working, Asare said. That could be an indication of heat stroke and a time to step in and tell that person to take a break, he said.

But Rosenthal said more regulations are needed to ensure worker safety because human error comes into play.

“There’s a very clear health and economic argument to provide protections for workers,” she said. “We know that construction workers are one of the groups that are not only at high risk, exposed more to the heat, but are also disproportionately vulnerable for a number of reasons.” 

America’s lowest-paid workers have five times as many heat-related injuries as its highest-paid workers, and work injuries tied to heat are vastly undercounted, The New York Times reported. 

Construction workers, especially those in the Latino community, can be inclined to ignore warning signs because they are committed to the job and don’t realize the dangers, Terreros said. More than 60% of the Texas construction industry workforce is Latino. 

In 2022, foreign-born Latino workers accounted for 63.5% of total Latino worker fatalities, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of those 792 foreign-born deaths, 316 were in the construction industry.

“We all came to this great country to work, and we don't want to lose our jobs,” Terreros said. “But sometimes they are willing to go the extra mile to keep their employers happy.”

That stress can be amplified by the need to send money to family back in their home countries, he said. The National Association of Hispanic Contractors is trying to educate workers to help them relax and stay safe.

“The job is going to be there. No one is pushing that hard,” Terreros said. “But I would say it's cultural. … They are willing to go the extra mile, sometimes without even considering the consequences of the weather.” 

The association is especially pushing that information toward members of the younger generation who may not be as familiar with the risks, he said. More than 70% of heat-related deaths occur during a worker’s first week, OSHA found, and new workers are less acclimated to the environment. 

OSHA already has some heat safety requirements in place, including the National Emphasis Program, which emphasizes the importance of water, rest and shade while increasing inspections around heat. That remains on the books until April, Construction Dive reported.

Yet the number of heat-related injuries is rising and strongly correlated with high temperatures. The number of injuries in Texas from exposure to environmental heat has been climbing for three years, from 28 in 2021 to 50 in 2022 and 82 in 2023. The data shows room for improvement, Rosenthal said.   

“If the protections were in place, we wouldn’t be seeing the kind of health consequences that we’re seeing,” she said.