New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday signed an executive order directing city agencies to expand protections for workers exposed to extreme heat, an initiative the Mayor’s Office described as the first of its kind in the city’s history.
The order provides for the creation of heat safety guides in multiple languages for both indoor and outdoor workers, heat-related illness prevention plans for city employees and contractors, a review of construction site safety standards, and an analysis of heat-related workers’ compensation claims filed by city employees.
However, the measure does not immediately establish a broad, mandatory standard for private sector employers. Asked whether the order would ensure that airport workers and other employees receive shade, water and breaks, Mamdani responded that the initiative seeks to initiate a comprehensive review of existing protections and those that could be implemented in the future.
“This will allow for a complete review of actions in both the public and private sectors,” Mamdani said, adding that the city will evaluate “each regulation in place and also those that may need to be introduced.”
“No one should have to choose between their salary and their health,” the mayor said during an event at City Hall, accompanied by union leaders, worker advocates and municipal commissioners. “The people who build our skyline, deliver packages, sell food on street corners, and keep this city running deserve to go home safe and sound at the end of every day.”
Extreme heat affects workers in New York
The announcement coincided with the release of the Department of Health’s 2026 heat-related mortality report, which concluded that high temperatures cause the premature deaths of approximately 500 New Yorkers each summer.
The report notes that the city recorded an annual average of seven direct deaths due to heat stress between 2016 and 2025, in addition to about 490 annual deaths between 2014 and 2023 in which heat aggravated pre-existing diseases. Among heat stress deaths, 8% were work-related.
The document also warns about the increase in risks associated with climate change. According to preliminary data, the city recorded 21 deaths from heat stress in 2025, including 19 linked to a four-day heat wave that occurred in June. The Department of Health indicated that the number of summer days with extreme temperatures has more than doubled in the last five decades.
Mamdani’s order directs the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NYC Emergency Management, and the Department of City Administrative Services (DCAS) to develop educational materials and safety guides for employers and workers, including employees, independent contractors, digital platform workers, and day laborers.
Guidelines for outdoor workers should be published as soon as possible, while those for indoor workers should be ready by March 1, 2027.
The measure also requires city agencies to develop heat-related illness prevention plans for employees and contractors when the city’s Heat Emergency Plan is activated. It also directs the Department of Buildings to review heat-related safety requirements at construction sites and tasks the Department of Health to analyze patterns in workers’ compensation claims linked to high temperatures.
Additionally, the Department of Health will study whether heat-related emergency room visits should become a notifiable public health condition, including allowing medical providers to report the patient’s workplace and employer. If officials conclude the measure would benefit public health, they could propose changes to the city’s health code.
Although the Mayor’s Office presented the order as a new comprehensive strategy to protect workers, the city already had a detailed heat stress prevention plan for municipal employees. That plan, developed in April 2025 by the DCAS Office of Occupational Safety and Health in coordination with the Department of Health and NYC Emergency Management, calls for measures such as access to cold drinking water, shade, monitoring, training and breaks linked to the heat index.
The new order expands that framework by involving more municipal agencies and focusing on workers outside the municipal workforce, including construction employees, delivery drivers and other private sector workers.
During the news conference, John Mosquera, a tarmac agent at LaGuardia Airport, said he lost consciousness last summer while loading luggage into the hold of a plane in temperatures approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
“I lost consciousness and was thrown inside the plane due to the extreme heat,” Mosquera said.
According to him, he received water and a brief rest before returning to complete a 10-hour shift.
“No suitcase, no flight and no company are worth the life of a worker,” he said.
Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, who previously served as acting U.S. Secretary of Labor, said federal efforts to create a national standard on heat exposure have stalled, leaving cities and states to act on their own.
“Workers who work in high temperatures do not have a clear legal right to shade, rest or water,” Su said. “The mayor is not waiting.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who participated in the event alongside Mamdani, called the issue an environmental justice issue and noted that workers of color, immigrants and low-wage employees are overrepresented in occupations with high heat exposure.
The order also instructs city agencies to reinforce existing protections, including rules that guarantee food delivery drivers access to bathrooms in restaurants where they pick up orders.
