New York City’s hot summer temperatures can affect the safety of workers on the job and those exposed to the heat. Ramp agents working on roasting tarmacs, construction crews pouring concrete in exposed sites, delivery workers, street vendors, and warehouse and kitchen staff often have to work in dangerously overheated conditions.
“No one should have to choose between their paycheck and their health,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on June 22, as he signed an executive order requiring city agencies to develop heat-safety guidance. “The workers building our skyline, delivering our packages, selling food on our street corners, and keeping this city running deserve to come home safe at the end of every shift.”
John Mosquera, a ramp agent at LaGuardia Airport, told those attending the City Hall signing about the time he passed out from the hot weather while at work:
“During one of the hottest days of the year, I was working on the tarmac in about 100-degree weather. The tarmac, nobody knows…absorbs heat, and it was scorching that day. It’s like you’re working in the oven. I remember I was working inside the cargo hold of the plane, loading bags. Loading bags is hard work, and the bags are heavy, …but when you add in the extreme heat, it could feel overbearing. Working inside the cargo hold felt at least 10 degrees hotter, closer to 110 degrees. So, you can imagine how uncomfortable it felt being inside.
“Suddenly, as I’m loading the bags, I start seeing spots like when you press on your eyelid too hard, and you see stars,” he continued. “I lost consciousness and just lay in the belly of the plane from how hot it was. When I was woken up a few minutes later, I was struggling to catch my breath. I was disoriented and felt scared, and my supervisor came in and asked if I was okay. When I told them I was okay, I had a short break and some water, and was sent right back to work. I finished my 10-hour shift that day.”
Mosquera also said a coworker who asked supervisors for water during a July 2024 heat wave ended up being suspended for two days. “We risk our health working in dangerous temperatures, and when one of us speaks up for basic protections, we fear retaliation,” he said. “That is not what safety looks like. That is not what respect looks like. Nobody should be punished for trying to keep themselves together and their coworkers safe.”
The Mamdani administration’s new heat order does not set a citywide standard requiring water, shade, or paid breaks for all private-sector workers. But it does push city agencies to develop workplace heat rules, at a time when federal and state protections remain limited.
Mamdani and his deputies said the order is needed because over 1.4 million New Yorkers work outside for long periods of time, while many others work indoors in spaces where it gets hot without enough cooling. These workers are often Black, Latino, immigrants, low-wage workers, or gig workers who have little power to ask for protection without risking losing pay or getting into trouble.
Executive Order No. 17 directs the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), NYC Emergency Management, and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to develop and distribute multilingual heat-safety guidance for outdoor workers as soon as possible this year. Guidance for indoor workers is due by March 1, 2027. Every agency must also create and implement heat illness prevention plans for city employees and contractors.
The Department of Buildings is also ordered to review construction-site heat safety rules and recommend whether they need to be strengthened by March 1, 2027. DOHMH will have to analyze workers’ compensation claims, measure heat-related workplace harm, and evaluate whether heat illness should be made a reportable health condition. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is directed to enforce existing worker-protection rules, including rules that give food delivery workers the right to use bathrooms at restaurants where they make deliveries.
The mandate covers workers in construction, airport ground service, app-based food delivery, package delivery, street vending, day labor, sanitation and municipal work, building services, restaurants, commercial kitchens, warehouses, and other workplaces where heat can be intensified by asphalt, machinery, uniforms, protective gear, or poor ventilation.
Deputy Mayor Julie Su, a former head of the U.S. Department of Labor, said workers have told the administration they cannot always stop for water, step into shade, or slow down when quotas and schedules have to be met. She said the same basic protections surfaced repeatedly in conversations with construction workers, delivery drivers, baggage handlers, warehouse workers, and kitchen workers: water, rest, shade, training, and a plan before temperatures spike. “These basic protections are the difference between a worker who makes it home safe at the end of the day and one who doesn’t,” Su said.
There is currently no finalized federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) standard for heat exposure in workplaces. OSHA proposed a Heat Injury and Illness Prevention rule in 2024, held a hearing in 2025, and collected feedback until October 2025, but it has not been adopted as a final standard. For now, businesses are told to ensure their workplaces don’t have hazards that could cause death or serious harm.
