California Businesses, Lawmakers Turn Up Heat Over Workplace Temperatures

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In political jargon, “heat” means pressure on politicians to do something they may be reluctant, for whatever reason, to do.

Dan Walters

CalMatters

Opinion

But heat itself — high temperatures, sometimes in triple digits, that afflict inland California each summer — is a political issue with life-and-death consequences.

Assembly Bill 1336, now awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature or veto, is the latest skirmish in a decades-long conflict over protecting workers from heat effects on their health, whether they work outdoors or inside.

The measure, if approved, would create a new legal presumption — that workers suffering from heat illness or injury would be entitled to workers’ compensation benefit