D10 Councilman voices concern over Heat Illness Ordinance passage

Published on August 31, 2023

SAN ANTONIO (August 31, 2023) – Today, the City of San Antonio passed an ordinance establishing minimum heat illness prevention requirements for certain City funded contracts. It would require contractors to provide their employees with a 15-minute break every four hours. 

“While this might appear to be a positive step for employees of contractors doing work for the City,” Councilman Marc Whyte said, “the reality is that it will do little to nothing to improve employee safety as just about every contractor working for the City already has measures such as this – and better – in place.”

Along with a 15-minute break every four hours, the adopted ordinance requires construction companies to supply drinking water for all employees, provide shaded areas, and display rest-break ordinance signage on construction sites. 

“Protecting the health and wellness of our City’s employees is a noble goal. Of course, our contractors should be doing this, and due to OSHA guidelines, state regulations and just common sense – they are.  In my view, we solved a problem that does not exist.  What I’m most disappointed about is that the Council seemed to disregard stakeholder input from groups like the Associated General Contractors who were clear that such an ordinance was unnecessary. More and more government regulations are rarely the answer.”  

Additionally, Councilman Whyte questions whether the new ordinance will even be capable of being enforced.  

“Similar ordinances in our neighboring cities like Austin and Dallas have really produced no results and have proved almost impossible to enforce. In fact, Austin recently decided to rescind their ordinance.  Moving forward, instead of trying to impose city regulations on our contractors, we need to trust in our federal and state policies that are already in place and that are being crafted, rather than being reactive and taking measures that are more symbolic than substantive.”