PIERSON, Fla. — One of Florida's newest laws is getting a lot of attention, and it deals with something Floridians know a lot about, hot temperatures.

What You Need To Know

  • House Bill 433 bans Florida cities and counties from requiring employers to give their employees water breaks and other protections when temperatures soar

  • Migrant workers in Pierson already work long days in the heat and now people are saying if municipalities can’t get involved to help them, more needs to be done

  • In Florida, there are no laws that provide heat exposure protections for outdoor workers

  • Florida Rep. Tiffany Esposito, the bill's sponsor, says the goal of this legislation is to prevent different counties and cities from having different regulations

House Bill 433 bans Florida cities and counties from requiring employers to give their employees water breaks and other protections when temperatures soar.

Migrant workers in Pierson already work long days in the heat and now people are saying if municipalities can’t get involved to help them, more needs to be done.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of death in the United States. 

Since 2011, more than 400 workers have died due to environmental heat exposure, with thousands more being hospitalized.

Conditions like this, Maria Elena Valdivia says, are tough to work in. She used to work as a farmworker when she moved from Mexico to Pierson in 1994.

“Farmworkers are literally working for their own death,” Valdivia said.

In November 2022, she founded the Migrants and Minorities Alliance, an organization dedicated to advocating for farmworkers’ rights.

“They don’t think about the human beings that are doing the work for their own benefit," Valdiva said. "It’s inhumane.”

Ernesto Ruiz, research coordinator for the Farmworker Association of Florida, agrees with Valdivia. This legislation doesn’t cut it. 

“It’s not just farmworkers. It’s construction workers, it’s the people who put the fiber optic cables that we use for internet, for cable. The people who build our infrastructure deserve basic consideration,” Ruiz said.

In Florida, there are no laws that provide heat exposure protections for outdoor workers.   

Florida Rep. Tiffany Esposito, R-District 77, is the bill’s sponsor. 

She says the goal of the legislation is to prevent different counties and cities from having different regulations.