New Orleans approves requirement that city workers get breaks during heat waves

The New Orleans City Council on Thursday passed a measure requiring city agencies to give workers regular breaks when it’s hot outside.

City workers will be entitled to a 10-minute break for every two hours working outdoors or in areas without air conditioning when the heat index, or “feels-like” temperatures, reach 80 degrees.

They will get a 15-minute break for every two hours working in those conditions when the heat index reaches 90 degrees. The ordinance now goes to Mayor LaToya Cantrell.

Councilmember Oliver Thomas sponsored the resolution, which was supported by local labor unions and workers rights groups.

“You would think, especially given extreme heat…that this would be standard operating procedure. But it’s not,” Thomas said at the council meeting Thursday. The measure pass