Texas rules requiring water breaks for construction workers will be nullified

As a lifelong Texan who now lives in California— Texas has absolutely <i>no</i> problem overriding municipal and county governments, the biggest of which are solidly blue. It’s a pattern they’ve repeated for over 20 years, often more so as a show of force than anything that affects things at a state level:<p>- Local “bag charges” and “bag bans” on non-reusable plastic bags at grocery stores were outlawed in 2018.<p>- Anything that has to do with attempts at gun restrictions in cities (auditoriums&#x2F;malls&#x2F;etc) gets overridden every year.<p>- Just this year, the state passed a law with explicit language exclusively targeting its biggest county, Harris County (Houston), disbanding its election commissioner position and that the state AG has the ability to re-call elections in the county if he believes there was “enough fraud”.<p>There’s so much more, but “local control” is not a term which holds much water in Texas. The other side of the coin is that, unlike California, this philosophy is also reflected in Texas’ zoning codes, and as such it’s much easier and much more consistent across cities to build — developers in cities begin to bemoan when permits take more than 3 months in Texas cities, whereas in Los Angeles years would be the norm

Okay guys, focus on the real issue here, which is Texas state government is Republican, but every major Texas city is Democratic.<p>So rural Texas bumpkins want to impose a rule of law on their economic engines (while conveniently decrying interference from federal agencies on things like policing, voting rights, LGBTQ discrimination, border policy, etc)<p>This is two wolves and a sheep deciding what&#x27;s for dinner, while the wolves cry about &quot;big government&quot; and having agendas forced on them.

Is this specific regulation really an issue? I understand heat related deaths do occur but is it because they are not allowed water breaks every 4!! hours?<p>If you&#x27;re working out there in 115+ heat index like June, July, August, September bring you&#x27;re going to need a water break every 20-40 minutes, especially decked out in full PPE. I don&#x27;t see overseers out there driving these Hispanic laborers to work 8 hours straight. They can take a break whenever they want, after all who is going to stop them. They need the job done right?<p>This seems like the type of regulation pushed by those who never have worked out in the heat before. Who in their right mind would even waste time passing a mandatory once every 4 hour water break? That&#x27;s useless.

Quite a horrific solution to a concern about variance among local governments. Perhaps they truly believe the market will solve work concerns &#x2F; deaths, despite past evidence that they get brushed aside.

Those mandatory water break laws confuse me. Is it because businesses are refusing to let their workers take water breaks? Or because workers don’t realize when they need a water break? I find it hard to believe either of those things are generally true*.<p>*: Perhaps there are some outliers - businesses that genuinely slavedrive their workers, or workers that genuinely can’t tell when they’re about to die. But are those businesses or workers likely to pay much attention to these laws anyway?

The bill in question<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;capitol.texas.gov&#x2F;tlodocs&#x2F;88R&#x2F;billtext&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;HB02127F.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;capitol.texas.gov&#x2F;tlodocs&#x2F;88R&#x2F;billtext&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;HB02127F....</a><p>Maybe I didn&#x27;t read it properly but water breaks are not under attack

Sane places have extremely strong OSHA-equivalent agencies with literal criminal penalties for managers whose employees are injured on the job due to site conditions or lack of proper training and safety equipment. I can’t believe anyone advocates for less.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hrmonline.com.au&#x2F;topics&#x2F;health-wellbeing-and-safety&#x2F;employer-jailed-workplace-death-mt-sheds&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hrmonline.com.au&#x2F;topics&#x2F;health-wellbeing-and-saf...</a>

Also... can we talk about how f&#x27;d it is that someone who wants smaller government would go out of his way to ban small local government from governing?<p>&quot;You&#x27;re doing it wrong at the local level, let me run things at the state level... but that same logic doesn&#x27;t apply to the federal government!&quot;<p>It takes some real mental hoolahooping to make that work.

I&#x27;m confused why there is even a law for this. Is there a law for bathroom breaks as well? Do t let any company treat you as less than a human being.

maybe if we call them &quot;freedom breaks&quot; ???

Are all the workers insured?

This would be interesting to see how it plays out and if the market solves this on its own.<p>While a regulation and mandates usually requires an employer to keep extra records, cause confusion for a lot of smaller companies trying to comply based on each different governments rules, as well as generate more government costs to enforce, the Texas heat is nothing to mess with just as in many states in the south.<p>I would think an employer who has crews working in the heat would want their crews to be rested and hydrated. Someone handing heavy machinery and passes out, or god forbid, dies on a job would crush that company and cause hell on the general costs of insurance. Also with the number of construction companies, ones that basically tell their staff they can’t drink water I would have to believe quickly will find no one will want to work for.