Archinect - News

President Biden lays out workplace heat safety plan to protect workers

2023-07-31T17:06:00-04:00

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced plans to increase protections for workers facing extreme heat, as temperatures across the U.S. soar and large swaths of the country face heat advisories.

The President’s announcement comes as close to 40% of the U.S. population faces heat advisories, according to the National Weather Service. The country currently has no federal standards on workplace heat safety, and there has been no timeline for the finalization of one. As reported by HR Dive, heat has become the number one cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S.

Previously on Archinect: Lack of heat standards for construction workers increases safety risks as temperatures reach record-breaking levels

Biden directed the U.S. Department of Labor to issue hazard alerts notifying employers and employees about ways to stay protected from extreme heat. The Department will also increase its inspections of at-risk workplaces such as farms and construction sites and heighten its enforcement of heat safety violations. The Biden administration aims to invest $7 million to develop more accurate weather predictions and $152 million to improve drinking water infrastructure in California, C...

Workplace protections falter as climate change makes outdoor work more hazardous

2020-01-23T12:30:00-05:00

In 2018, 60 workers died due to temperature extremes, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data on workplace fatalities. Though the climate crisis is creating conditions where workers are facing hotter temperatures on a more frequent basis, there are no federal safety protections for workers in extreme temperatures, and only three states, California, Washington and Minnesota, have heat stress workplace protection standards.

The Guardian's Michael Sainato takes a look at the increasingly dangerous nature of outdoor work as climate change makes extreme heat a greater danger for people who labor outside.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 783 workers in the United States died and more than 69,000 workers were injured due to heat exposure while on the job between 1992 and 2016, though the actual figures are likely higher due under-reporting.

According to Sainato's report, federal oversight over workplace safety, especially for outdoor workers, has decreased sharply under the administration of President Donald Trump despite the fact that global temperatures are going up and the number of "dangerous heat days" is expected to double over the next 30 years.

Workers' rights for graduate students take a step backward under proposed rules

2019-09-23T15:15:00-04:00

Graduate teaching assistants and other student workers at private universities and colleges wouldn’t qualify for federal protections that grant most private-sector workers the right to form or join a union under a new regulatory proposal. Students who receive compensation for teaching or conducting research “in connection with their studies” wouldn’t be considered employees, who have the right to unionize and are protected from various unfair labor practices

The move, supported by three of President Donald Trump's appointees to the National Labor Relations Board, would deal a setback to graduate teaching assistant unionization efforts, though, according to Bloomberg Law, existing contracts between universities and student employee unions would not be impacted.

The Department of Labor made big changes to its overtime rules. How will this affect you and your firm?

2016-09-02T18:02:00-04:00

Thanks to recent regulations issued by the Department of Labor, more salaried workers will receive overtime pay, beginning in December of this year. Previously, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 guaranteed that anyone making a salary of $23,660 or less annually was entitled to overtime pay (at 1.5x time) for any hours beyond the 40-hour workweek. The DOL’s new rule doubles that threshold to $47,476.

Those employees making above the new threshold, up to $134,004 annually, are exempt from receiving such overtime, provided they fall into such categories as “executive, administrative and professional”. While this is a huge upgrade to the overtime law generally, the particulars of the ruling will still depend on a firm's size and location.

According to Archinect’s Salary Poll, the average annual salary for anyone 30 or younger (regardless of title, license, experience or any other variable) in architecture in the U.S. is $50,859—pretty close to that overtime threshold. For anyone negoti...