Summer in the City: New York City Moves to Protect Workers From Extreme Heat

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Quick Hits

• New York City Executive Order No. 17 directs city agencies to create guidance, gather data, improve worker protections, expand restroom and cooling information, and prepare for stronger rules addressing extreme heat in the workplace.
• Although it does not directly impose new duties on private employers, the order creates a citywide framework for heat illness prevention that employers should monitor and may wish to follow in advance of future regulation.
• The order responds to growing heat risks for outdoor, indoor, construction, gig, delivery, and municipal workers by requiring multilingual guidance, agency heat plans, data review, strict restroom access enforcement, and public heat relief messaging.

The order is grounded in findings that roughly 1.4 million New Yorkers—about a third of the city’s workforce—work outdoors for prolonged periods, and that the city could experience more than four times as many heat waves each year by the 2050s. While the order’s obligations fall primarily on city agencies rather than private employers, it sets out a detailed framework and timeline that employers should understand. The order took effect immediately.

Background and Findings

The order’s preamble sets out the rationale for action. It finds that “hundreds of thousands of workers in New York City” face heat-related illness and death on hot days, and that extreme heat increases the risk of all categories of workplace injury while reducing productivity. It cites scientific evidence that worker productivity decreases by approximately 2 percent for every one degree Celsius above the comfort range.

The order also notes that many construction workers, street vendors, app-based delivery workers, day laborers, and other gig workers lack paid breaks and easy restroom access, leading some to limit water intake and increase their risk of dehydration and related conditions.

Worker Heat Illness Prevention Guidance

At the heart of the order is a mandate for new heat illness prevention guidance. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), working with NYC Emergency Management and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, must develop best-practice guidance and educational materials for both indoor and outdoor workers. Importantly, the materials must be produced in the languages commonly spoken by the city’s workers and must cover not just employees but independent contractors, gig workers, and day laborers.

A long list of agencies will help disseminate the materials. DOHMH must prepare outdoor worker guidance “as soon as practicable” and submit indoor worker guidance by March 1, 2027.

Construction and Municipal Worker Protections

The order singles out two groups for heightened attention. The Department of Buildings (DOB) must review whether existing construction safety and training requirements adequately protect against heat illness, consult with worker organizations, and may issue new recommendations—also due by March 1, 2027.

Separately, all mayoral agencies must develop and implement their own indoor and outdoor heat illness plans so that city employees and contractors are protected whenever the city’s Heat Emergency Plan is activated. When that plan is triggered, New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) will push out heat illness prevention information and employer recommendations tied to the forecasted temperature.

Data Collection and Reporting Requirements

Several provisions focus on building a heat-illness evidence base. The order directs DOHMH to review workers’ compensation claims filed by city employees to identify patterns related to temperature, including excess risk during hot weather. DOHMH will study whether to add heat-related illnesses to the Diseases and Conditions of Public Health Interest that are reportable under the City Health Code. This step could eventually require health care professionals to report such conditions, including the patient’s employer and place of employment.

The DOB is directed, during periods of high heat, to remind property owners, contractors, and others in control of construction sites of their existing obligation to report heat-related incidents requiring emergency transport or immediate emergency care.

Restroom Access and Heat Relief

The order also addresses access to restrooms and relief from the heat. During periods of high heat, city agencies with jurisdiction over worker protection measures must strictly enforce laws and rules that increase restroom access for outdoor workers, including the Administrative Code provision granting food delivery workers the right to use the restrooms of the restaurants for which they make deliveries, regardless of whether they are employed by the restaurant.

The city must also continue implementing free public restrooms and must include information about restrooms, cooling centers, Parks Department cooling locations, water features, drinking fountains, and shaded locations in its messaging to workers.

Implications for Employers

Although Executive Order No. 17 directs city agencies rather than imposing direct obligations on private employers, employers should monitor its implementation closely. Today’s guidance often becomes tomorrow’s requirements. The forthcoming DOHMH guidance is likely to become the practical benchmark for heat-safety measures in New York City. The order also notes that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed a federal rule requiring employers to take heat-protection steps for indoor and outdoor workers, signaling the broader regulatory direction. While this rule has stalled, states across the country are beginning to enact their own heat injury and illness prevention regulations. New York City (and possibly the state) may not be far behind.

Employers that align their practices with the city’s guidance and the proposed federal standard will be better positioned as those requirements take shape.

Next Steps

Even though this order does not create any new requirements for private employers, there is still room for proactive action. Employers can consider taking the following steps now: developing a written heat illness prevention plan covering both indoor and outdoor work; incorporating rest, water, and shade during high-heat periods; ensuring restroom access for field and delivery staff; training supervisors to recognize the early signs of heat illness; providing safety materials in the languages spoken by their workforce; and documenting hot-weather response protocols.

Employers should also monitor the release of the city’s outdoor worker guidance and the progress of the OSHA rule in order to align their policies as the regulatory framework develops.

Ogletree Deakins’ New York office and Workplace Safety and Health Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and provide updates on the Construction, New York, and Workplace Safety and Health blogs as the city’s heat illness prevention guidance and related requirements are issued.

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