As Texas swelters, local rules requiring water breaks for construction workers will soon be nullified
www.texastribune.org
Gov. Greg Abbott approved this week a law that will eliminate city and county ordinances like Austin and Dallas’ mandated water breaks. Texas is one of the states where most workers die from high temperatures.
  • utfoodcartfence@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Running a small business, I am somewhat familiar with certain business regulations and IRS rules that, without purpose, waste resources and time. With that said, knowing nothing about the law just passed, this doesn’t feel like where I’d start looking to make things more efficient. This doesn’t feel like low-hanging fruit.

    Excerpts from the article:

    • Water breaks are better solved by OSHA controls, argued Geoffrey Tahuahua, president of Associated Builders and Contractors of Texas. Tahuahua believes local rules impose a rigid scheme that, unlike OSHA guidelines, does not allow the flexibility needed to tailor breaks to individual job site conditions.

    • “They try to make one size fits all, and that is not how it should work,” he said. “These ordinances just add confusion and encourage people to do the minimum instead of doing the right thing.”

    • Michaels pointed out that OSHA does not have a national standard for heat-related illnesses and issues citations only for over-exposure to heat after an injury or death, but not before that occurs.

    The principle of one-size-fits-all being a bad idea is fine. Makes sense. However, I don’t see how that applies to a water break. They seem to want to substitute a reactive approach to safety for a proactive approach, without any data collection efforts to measure which is more effective.

    • BigFig@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      What I find crazy is, they acknowledge we are headed into probably the hottest season Texas has ever seen. And they pass this claiming OSHA should cover this sort of thing…okay, and in the mean time?? From the time this goes into effect and the time OSHA says anything about this, how many people will be denied a water break because “the law doesn’t say you get one anymore”. I’d argue that this law ENCOURGES employers to do the minimum of absolutely nothing.

  • defeater@vlemmy.netEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    You will work! You will work in your shitty job that you hate! You will fucking WORK! WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK IT IS ALL YOU EXIST FOR