Arizona Executive Order 2025-09: Protecting Arizonans from Heat Risk in the Workplace

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed Executive Order 2025-09, Protecting Arizonans from Heat Risk in the Workplace, to address extreme heat as a recognized occupational hazard and require stronger workplace protections. The Executive Order aims to implement Arizona’s broader Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan into more specific workplace heat-safety guidance for employers statewide. These efforts were initiated following record-breaking heat experienced in Arizona in 2023 and 2024.

The order directs the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH) to form a Workplace Heat Safety Task Force that will develop industry specific guidelines to help employers prevent heat-related illnesses and injuries. The Task Force itself draws from private industry, public agencies, worker representatives, and occupational safety and health experts. Oversight of Arizona's broader heat strategy sits with the Governor’s Office of Resiliency, which also coordinates the statewide Chief Heat Officer Position. While the order does not immediately change existing regulations, it aims to close enforcement gaps caused by vague standards of reliance on general best practices. 

Under the § 5(a)(1) of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the General Duty Clause requires employers to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that are likely to cause death or serious physical harm. The ADOSH guidelines are intended to clarify what constitutes a heat hazard. While the guidelines themselves are not binding rules, they effectively set the bar for what ADOSH inspectors will assess. 

Beyond the guidelines, ADOSH is also directed to create a recognition program that commends employers that go above and beyond basic requirements to support the safety, health, and welfare of their employees with regard to heat. 

The Heat Safety Task Force was directed to deliver its recommended Heat Guidelines for Employers to ADOSH by December 31, 2025, and final recommendations were to be submitted to the bipartisan Industrial Commission of Arizona for its approval. Governor Hobbs announced that the Workplace Heat Safety Task Force issued its final recommendations on December 31, 2025, and they were published by the Industrial Commission of Arizona. When the Commission formally adopts the recommendations as standards, employers are subject to the guidelines.

 

Publication Date: May 22, 2025

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  • State of Arizona

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  • Executive order

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