Boston City Council eyes first-in-nation local worker heat ordinance

BOSTON — July 24, 2024 — Boston City Council hears testimony toward a potential local worker heat ordinance, citing a national void in protections. Councillor Benjamin J. Weber, chair of the Committee on Labor, Workforce, and Economic Development, convened the July 24 hearing alongside co-sponsor Enrique J. Pepén, with Councillors Erin J. Murphy, Edward M. Flynn, Liz Breadon, Henry Santana, and Sharon Durkan also attending. Terry Gerstein of the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative testified virtually that Phoenix is the only U.S. city to have enacted a local heat ordinance and called a blank slide her "list of other local laws" — "Boston has an opportunity to be a national leader." OSHA's Boston regional office confirmed approximately 163 heat inspections and nearly 500 complaints across New England since a 2022 national emphasis program launched, while noting no federal heat standard is yet final. City Deputy Chief Jody Sugarman-Brasen said Boston already sent heat-prevention resources to 28,000 permitted contractors this summer and that the city is actively exploring an ordinance modeled on its 2023 construction and demolition safety law. UMass Lowell researcher Dr. Cora Roelofs argued that education alone is insufficient and called for permit-tied enforcement: "Failure to provide heat illness protection to workers in the city of Boston has to be at least as serious as a building code violation."