Chris Nickels Discusses OSHA's Proposed Heat Rule in Business Insurance Article

Chris Nickels, a partner in the Quarles & Brady Labor & Employment Practice Group, was quoted in a Business Insurance article about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) proposed new heat rule potentially being abandoned. The article discussed the regulations being put in place at the state level to protect employees against workplace hazards.

Nickels offered advice to employers who operate in environments where heat is a factor and provided simple and effective measures they can include in their heat injury prevention plan, including providing access to cool drinking water, designated break areas and maintaining open lines of communication with workers.

An excerpt:

Chris Nickels, Milwaukee-based labor and employment attorney at Quarles & Brady LLP, advises employers, regardless of whether mandates are in effect, to assess the needs of their workplaces. OSHA, even without a heat standard, can still cite an employer for failing to protect workers under the agency’s general duty clause, which states that workplaces must be free from known hazards, he said.

“We were always in a wait and see as it relates to the specifics of the federal OSHA heat stress rule,” he said. “But if you’re an employer operating in environments where heat is a factor — whether that’s due to environment or heat-generating manufacturing processes — it is important now to prioritize worker safety and implement a heat injury prevention plan that can include simple and effective measures, some of which were part of this OSHA plan, such as providing access to cool drinking water, designated break areas, and maintaining open lines of communication with workers.”