Without a specific heat stress rule, OSHA has used its general duty clause to cite employers for failing to protect workers from hot conditions. The law requires employers to provide workplaces free of known, dangerous hazards that can be feasibly mitigated.
But absent a federal heat rule, unionized workers still have a process to arbitrate their grievances in federal court, noted Michael Duff, a professor of law at St. Louis University School of Law.
“There are options that you have that may actually be more efficient than what you could do with a big OSHA rule, which takes 10 years to establish, gets watered down—so to speak—and takes forever to get out the door, and then you have a change in the administration along the way,” said Duff.
OSHA in 2022 began targeting heat injuries in its inspections. The agency conducted about 7,000 heat-related inspections and issued 60 heat citations for violations of the general duty clause between April 2022 and December 2024.
Employers often challenge those citations with success, sometimes claiming OSHA can’t regulate the hazard or is taking an overly broad approach.
For example, the US Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission in 2013 vacated heat stress citations issued by OSHA against the Postal Service, citing that the agency didn’t sufficiently identify specific measures the Postal Service could have taken to reduce heat hazards.
