On June 22, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced it will be holding Small Business Advocacy Review panel (also known as a SBREFA panel) meetings this summer to gather input on a possible Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings rule.

The panel is tentatively scheduled to convene on or about Aug. 21 and will host a series of video conferences with Small Entity Representatives, or SERs, selected from the potentially regulated sectors, which include agriculture, construction, landscaping, manufacturing, oil and gas, warehousing, waste management, utilities and food service, specifically in restaurant kitchens. Each SER will be asked to review background materials and participate in a single video conference on the subject matter.

The panel will be comprised of representatives from OSHA, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy and the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

ABC member contractors that are interested in participating in the SBREFA panel are encouraged to reach out to ABC Senior Director of Policy Karen Livingston at [email protected] for further information about the process.

Learn more about the panels and how small businesses can participate.

Background:

On Oct. 27, 2021, OSHA issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings, which requested information on how to implement regulations to prevent workers from hazardous heat. ABC, as a steering committee member of the Construction Industry Safety Coalition, submitted comments in response to the ANPRM on Jan. 26, 2022.

On April 12, 2022, OSHA announced a National Emphasis Program on Outdoor and Indoor Heat-Related Hazards, which sets out a targeted enforcement effort and reiterates OSHA’s compliance assistance and outreach efforts.

ABC strongly supports worker safety and protection from heat injury and illness. However, flexibility for employers must be maintained in any rulemaking on this issue. A regulatory approach—if adopted—must be simple and should integrate the key concepts of “water, rest, shade.” ABC also supports a separate regulatory approach for the construction industry to ensure the regulation is adaptable to the fluid nature of the construction environment.