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No mandate exists. Deputy Mayor Julie Su told a roundtable that Washington alone holds the power to impose heat rules on private employers, so any standard the city writes would be voluntary for them.
- The mayor's order sets guidance, not penalties. Executive Order 17 calls for multilingual heat guidance, with indoor-worker guidance and construction-site recommendations due March 1, 2027.
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Existing rights apply now. Wage, safety and anti-discrimination protections cover workers regardless of immigration status, and Latino workers made up 25 of the 58 workplace deaths in the five boroughs in 2024.
Roughly 1.4 million New Yorkers, about a third of the city's labor force, work outdoors during the summer, according to City Hall, yet no city rule obliges a private employer to supply shade, water or a cool-down break. With Mayor Zohran Mamdani's heat order still being turned into guidance and workers pressing for more this week, the rights that already bind employers may be the quickest route to staying safe, including for Latino delivery workers and construction laborers.
The Roundtable That Exposed the Gap
During New York's climate week, union representatives and employees of large private companies met with Su to describe how this summer's heat, including a brutal wave in July, played out on the job, Gothamist reported. Amazon workers spoke of warehouses where air conditioning had failed and delivery-van seats that turned scorching hot. O'Neil Hyatt, a JFK Airport ramp worker with the 32BJ union, said he felt dizzy while hauling cargo on the tarmac. Amazon told the outlet it has applied reflective film to the roofs of 9,000 vehicles this year and put $29 million into hydration stations nationwide.
Participants asked for training in several languages, cooling stations outdoors, better ventilation indoors, hazard pay, employer help after heat-related medical emergencies and workers' compensation rules that account for heat illness.
Su was blunt about the limits. Only Washington can set binding rules for private companies, she said, so a city standard would apply to them voluntarily, although one written precisely enough could push some employers toward compliance. She added that she began work on a national heat standard while serving as acting labor secretary and that it has gone nowhere since she left. "People die because simple precautions are not taken on the job," she said.
What Mamdani's Executive Order Does—and Does Not Do
Executive Order 17, signed June 22, has the city health department, working with Emergency Management and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, write heat-illness guidance in the languages workers commonly speak. The text names gig workers, independent contractors and day laborers among those it must cover. Outdoor-worker guidance has no fixed date, while indoor-worker guidance must reach the deputy mayors by March 1, 2027.
Every mayoral agency must also draft heat-illness prevention plans for city employees and contractors. The Buildings Department must review whether current construction safety and training rules are enough against heat, with recommendations due the same March 1. The health department will examine how temperature relates to workers' compensation claims and weigh whether heat illness should become a reportable health condition, according to the mayor's office. The city attributes about 500 deaths a year in part to heat.
In July, Mamdani said the guidance was still being drafted and that the city had contacted more than 70,000 licensed businesses to remind them of heat protections and existing law, according to a transcript of his radio appearance.
Why Latino Workers Carry the Heaviest Load
Construction was the deadliest sector in the city in 2024, with 20 fatal accidents on job sites, down from 30 the year before, Documented reported from federal data. Across all industries, 25 of the 58 workplace deaths in the five boroughs that year were Latino workers, compared with 13 Asian and 11 white workers.
The New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) found that Latino workers make up under 19% of the construction workforce but nearly 26% of its fatalities. The group also tallied at least four heat-related construction deaths statewide in 2024, two of them in the city, at recorded temperatures of 83 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Buildings Department reports fewer deaths, seven in 2024 and 10 in 2025, because it counts only building-construction fatalities at sites under its jurisdiction. Federal tallies are broader, and this article relies on them.
Rosanna Rodriguez of the Laundry Workers Center says undocumented laborers often take on dangerous tasks because they fear being fired if they refuse. Reacting to the federal data, Ligia Guallpa, executive director of Workers' Justice Project, said: "Behind every number in this report is a worker who never made it home."
Rights That Do Not Depend on Papers
- Pay and discrimination. City guidance says employers cannot pay lower wages, or none, because of immigration status, and the city Human Rights Law bars unequal treatment over national origin or status. Workers can report it by calling 311 and naming "human rights" as the topic, per the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. The same page notes that employers are not barred from declining to hire or from dismissing someone who lacks authorization to work.
- Safe workplace. The city's Workers' Bill of Rights says employers must keep job sites from endangering workers' health or safety and must train them on job risks. Complaints go to OSHA, and workers can form a safety committee under state law. The consumer and worker protection agency says it will not ask about immigration status and that retaliation for asserting rights is illegal.
- Injury compensation. Workers hurt on the job may qualify for cash payments and medical care even if they are paid in cash or off the books, the immigrant affairs office says.
- Delivery workers. Since January 26, expanded city laws extend the minimum pay rate to grocery couriers, require payment within seven days of a pay period's end and improve bathroom access. The city scheduled the rate to rise to $22.13 an hour on April 1, and federal judges declined to block the laws on January 23. The city calls deliveristas majority immigrant, and a 2022 filing for a city hearing described most app-based food couriers as Latino, drawing mostly from Mexico and Guatemala.
Where Enforcement Runs Thin
Federal backing is shrinking. In April, OSHA rolled back a directive that would have set up a national emphasis program on heat hazards, and NYCOSH found that OSHA inspections in New York have dropped from pre-pandemic levels, Documented reported.
Locally, the Buildings Department had 1,601 employees against 1,853 authorized positions as of March, a 13.6% vacancy rate versus 5.04% citywide. The mayor's May executive budget proposed trimming the department by about $8.2 million. The department counters that building-construction injuries fell 33% in 2025 and that it welcomed a new group of 34 inspectors this spring.
What Comes Next
Watch the March 1, 2027 deadlines for indoor-worker guidance and the construction-site recommendations. Watch too the state's TEMP Act, which would require employers to provide water, shade and air conditioning but, as of Documented's May reporting, had not reached a floor vote.
Workers can already file complaints with the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection or the Commission on Human Rights, although, as Gothamist notes, there are no concrete heat mandates for those agencies to enforce.
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