Overview
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order on Monday, June 22 directing DOHMH, NYC Emergency Management and DCAS to expand worker heat-safety efforts across city agencies.
- The order requires multilingual heat-safety guidance for outdoor workers as soon as practicable and for indoor workers by March 1, 2027, plus heat-illness prevention plans for municipal employees and contractors.
- Agencies must review construction-site safety rules and examine workers’ compensation claims for heat-linked patterns while the Health Department will study whether heat-related emergency room visits should be reportable.
- City officials stressed the order does not create an immediate, enforceable heat standard for private employers and is intended as a review that could lead to regulatory or health-code proposals.
- The move followed DOHMH’s 2026 report showing roughly 500 premature summer deaths tied to heat each year and growing extreme-heat days, and it drew support from unions and criticism from partisan outlets as further work proceeds.