Florida has no enforceable law protecting outdoor workers from extreme heat, and since July 2024 the state has blocked cities and counties from creating their own. Florida farmworker heat protection laws, as they stand, consist of a federal general-duty requirement that employers keep workplaces free of recognized hazards, a private certification program that covers only participating farms, and nothing else. Statewide bills have failed every year since 2018, a federal OSHA rule is frozen, and the local ordinance that came closest to passing was preempted before it could get a final vote.
What Florida Law Requires
Florida sets no water, shade, rest-break, or training requirements for outdoor workers in agriculture or construction. It also forbids its own cities and counties from setting any.
That prohibition comes from House Bill 433, which Governor Ron DeSantis signed on April 11, 2024. The heat-related provisions took effect on July 1, 2024.1KFF. Florida’s Recent Heat Protection Preemption Law The law prohibits any Florida municipality or county from requiring employers to provide heat protections beyond what state or federal law already mandates.2Truthout. Florida Ban on Protections for Outdoor Workers Because neither state nor federal law imposes specific heat rules, the practical effect is a complete block on local heat standards.
HB 433 reaches beyond heat. It also bars local predictive-scheduling rules for private employers and, effective September 30, 2026, will prohibit local governments from using their contracting power to set wage or benefit standards for vendors.3Florida Senate. HB 433 Bill Analysis KFF estimated the heat portion of the law affects roughly 1.8 million nonelderly adult outdoor workers in Florida, a workforce that is disproportionately Hispanic and includes many noncitizen immigrants. Florida became the second state to enact this kind of preemption, after Texas.1KFF. Florida’s Recent Heat Protection Preemption Law
The Federal Fallback
With no state rule and no local rule, Florida workers rely on federal enforcement, which is thin. OSHA has no specific heat standard. It uses the general duty clause, which requires employers to keep workplaces free from recognized serious hazards but sets no temperature triggers, mandatory water schedules, or paid-break requirements.
Enforcement penalties in Florida heat-death cases have been small. After a 28-year-old farmworker died on his first day of work in Parkland in January 2023, OSHA found the contractor could have prevented the death and proposed a $15,625 fine.4NBC News. South Florida Mourns Death of Another Farmworker Other Florida heat-death cases resulted in fines of $29,000 and $27,655.5Florida Policy Institute. High Heat, Higher Responsibility
A federal heat rule is in progress, but frozen. OSHA published a proposed heat illness prevention rule in August 2024 that would require employers to provide water, shade, and paid breaks, plus plans for monitoring heat illness and acclimating new workers. Public hearings ran through July 2025 and the comment period closed in October 2025.6OSHA. Heat Exposure Rulemaking A regulatory freeze the Trump administration ordered in January 2025 halted the process, and as of mid-2026 no target date for final action appears in the federal regulatory agenda. OSHA has instead renewed its National Emphasis Program for heat through April 2031, continuing to work through the general duty clause.7Certainty Software. State Heat Rules Exceed OSHA
Only six states have their own enforceable heat standards: California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, and Maryland.7Certainty Software. State Heat Rules Exceed OSHA Florida is not among them.
The Miami-Dade Ordinance That Almost Passed
The immediate reason Florida lawmakers wrote a preemption law was a local ordinance in Miami-Dade County. On July 18, 2023, the Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the first reading of a heat standard co-sponsored by Commissioners Marleine Bastien and Kionne McGhee. It would have required employers in construction and agriculture to provide 10-minute paid rest breaks and water every two hours when the heat index reached at least 90 degrees.8Prism Reports. Miami-Dade First Countywide Heat Standard It also called for heat exposure safety programs, first-aid protocols, and employee notices in English, Spanish, and Creole.9WUSF. DeSantis Ban Local Heat Protections Outdoor Workers
The ordinance cleared a committee in September 2023 and was on track for a final vote before industry pressure delayed it into March 2024.8Prism Reports. Miami-Dade First Countywide Heat Standard2Truthout. Florida Ban on Protections for Outdoor Workers Developer Jorge Perez argued that local heat rules would “cripple” agriculture and construction.9WUSF. DeSantis Ban Local Heat Protections Outdoor Workers3Florida Senate. HB 433 Bill Analysis Miami-Dade withdrew its proposal after the state law passed.10NPR. Florida Blocks Heat Protections for Workers
The Death That Fueled the Campaign
Public momentum for the Miami-Dade ordinance grew after Efraín López García, a 29-year-old Guatemalan farmworker, died on July 6, 2023, while picking longan fruit at a farm in Homestead. Coworkers said he told them he felt unwell, was moved to shade and given water, then stood up, appeared disoriented, and wandered off. They found him lying face-down several yards away.11Miami Herald. Efraín López García Heat Death Farmworker His family and coworkers attributed his death to the heat.12WLRN. Efraín López García Heat Stress Death Farmworker They said they had never been trained to recognize or respond to heat stroke.
The Farmworker Association of Florida and López García’s family filed a report with OSHA, and the U.S. Department of Labor opened an investigation.12WLRN. Efraín López García Heat Stress Death Farmworker4NBC News. South Florida Mourns Death of Another Farmworker No public citations or fines have followed. The farm’s owner, Thang Dang, denied any connection to López García, telling the Miami Herald in July 2023, “My business has nothing to do with the guy who died.”11Miami Herald. Efraín López García Heat Death Farmworker
The Private Alternative: Fair Food Program
The strongest heat rules covering any Florida farmworkers are private, not governmental. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program, which certifies participating farms, requires mandatory 10-minute cool-down breaks every two hours between May and October, access to shade and clean water with electrolytes, close monitoring of new workers during their first three weeks, and training for supervisors and workers on recognizing heat illness.13Fair Food Program. Relief From the Heat Workers can stop working when they feel unwell without retaliation. Farms that violate the rules can be suspended from selling to 14 major corporate buyers, including Walmart, Whole Foods, and McDonald’s, and the program enforces compliance through audits and a confidential complaint hotline.14Washington Post. Farmworker Heat Safety Fair Food Program
The program is voluntary, and it covers only participating farms. A worker at a non-participating operation gets none of these protections. López García was working at a longan grove that was not Fair Food-certified.
What’s Still Moving
State-level legislation keeps being introduced and keeps failing. State Representative Mike Gottlieb introduced House Bill 35 in January 2025, which would have established a statewide heat exposure safety program with training, periodic breaks, drinking water, and shade.15Central Florida Public Media. Proposed Law Would Protect Outdoor Workers From Excessive Heat It never received a committee vote and died in the Industries and Professional Activities Subcommittee in June 2025.16Florida Senate. HB 35 Heat Illness Prevention The Florida Policy Institute has noted that advocates have tried to pass outdoor heat legislation every session since 2018, without success.5Florida Policy Institute. High Heat, Higher Responsibility
In Congress, Senator Alex Padilla and Representative Judy Chu introduced the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act in July 2025, which would direct OSHA to finalize a federal heat standard. The Senate version, S. 2298, had 27 cosponsors but had not advanced past introduction.17GovTrack. S. 2298 Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness Prevention Act
For now, a Florida outdoor worker’s legal protection against extreme heat depends on whether the employer is certified by a private program, whether OSHA chooses to pursue a general duty clause case after the fact, and whether Congress or a future Florida legislature acts. The state’s own rules are silent, and its cities are barred from breaking that silence.