New California Law Regarding Work Environment Temperature

California has, for many years, protected its workers against potential heat illness from working outdoors by requiring additional paid rest periods, shaded rest areas, and available drinking water.  On June 20, 2024, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board expanded these protections and adopted a new heat illness prevention standard for indoor workplaces in California.  With emergency approval, the new indoor regulations (here) became effective on July 23, 2024.  Now, when indoor temperature equals or exceeds 82°F, the employer must provide one or more cool-off areas indoors of less than 82°F for workers to sit, rest, cool off, and drink water as frequently as the worker needs. Failure to provide these cool-off rest periods is treated like failure to provide a regular rest period, which triggers an hour of penalty pay at the regular rate of pay per employee for each day that cool-off rest periods are not provided, which also can lead to waiting-time penalties in California.  If the temperature reaches 87°F (or 82°F for employees wearing heat restrictive clothing or working in high radiant heat), the employer will additionally need to measure and keep records of the indoor temperature and take additional steps to lower the indoor temperature.

Employers also are now mandated to provide training to employees and supervisors on both indoor and outdoor heat illness prevention.  The training need only be provided once to each employee and supervisor.  The employer must also create, maintain and train employees on the employer’s written Heat Illness Prevention Plan (“HIPP”), a copy of which must be available to employees and their authorized representatives upon request.  Cal/OSHA has created a sample HIPP template that employers can use as well as FAQs about both the indoor and outdoor regulations (here).