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Florida construction workers say they’re denied water, rest, shade

By Zachory Phillips - Construction Dive, May 30, 2024

With a state law restricting local governments from mandating heat safety on the horizon, immigrant laborers say bosses refuse their calls for relief.

It was a hot day in Florida and Javier Torres was working in the sun. He began to feel “dizzy and cloudy” when he collapsed. 

He fell from a ladder, dropping two stories to the ground below.

“They said I almost broke my back,” Torres told Construction Dive, communicating in Spanish through a translator. “I felt pain for more than a month, but had to get back to work to provide for myself.”

A Colombian immigrant who does residential roofing, painting and demolition work in the Miami area, Torres said he has been repeatedly denied the chance to take breaks to drink water or rest in the shade while working. He declined to share the name of his employer. 

Torres and other members of Miami-area worker nonprofit WeCount! perform physically demanding jobs in intense heat and say their employers often deny them the protections they need to carry out their work safely. They believe they’re treated this way in part due to their ethnic background.

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