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Employment Law Update: The First Summer For Maryland’s New Heat Stress Regulations

This summer will be the first for which Maryland employers will need to ensure compliance with the newly established heat management regulations issued by Maryland’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MOSHA), enacted in September 2024. These regulations apply to any Maryland employer whose employees engage in employment activities, indoor or outdoor, for longer than 15 minutes, in which an employee is exposed to a heat index in the area where the employee is working that equals or exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

The MOSHA requirements are comprehensive. They include requirements that employers monitor certain “acclimatization” circumstances, which is a body's temporary adaptation to work in heat that occurs as a person is exposed over time. Employers must also create shade environments where possible and ensure drinking water is available. Ventilation standards are also mandated by the new regulations.

Employers subject to the regulations are required to establish a “Heat-Related Illness Prevention and Management Plan.” The regulations identify thirteen categories of observation or response components to be included in the Plan and require heat stress training for employees and supervisors prior to an employee's first exposure to heat. More demanding requirements are established for “high heat” exposure, defined as temperatures exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whiteford’s Labor and Employment Law team is ready to assist Maryland employers in establishing compliant programs in time for the summer heat.

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