SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio is considering an ordinance that would make it the third Texas city to require water breaks for construction workers, but a new state law could make the ordinance a target for state officials.
District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo said at Thursday morning's City Council committee meeting there have already been several people across the state who have died due to heat exhaustion, adding San Antonio's own triple-digit weather poses dangerous risks.
"The Baptist Health Systems emergency department have treated more than 100 patents across the city for heat exhaustion. In Webb County, 11 residents have died from heat-related illness over the last 10 days," Castilo said. "This heat has prompted the U.S. Postal Service to allow for earlier start times for letter carriers because a carrier in Dallas passed away from heat exhaustion. We have a responsibility as city council to protect the heath and safety of our constituents."
The city agenda contained a sample ordinance with the City of Dallas' rest break policy.
That ordinance states "an employee performing construction activity at a construction site is entitled to a rest break of not less than ten (10) minutes for every four (4) hours worked. No employee may be required to work more than 3.5 hours without a rest break."
The council was hesitant to adopt that language as is due to HB 2127, which was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.
That law requires Texas cities to stick strictly to state law on certain matters without allowing additional ordinances on the subject. Those matters include agriculture, business and commerce, finance, insurance, labor and property.
Depending on how the State of Texas enforces that law, which goes into effect in September, San Antonio could be blocked from enforcing any rest break rules.
This led some council members to suggest making the rest break a requirement for city contracts instead of applying the ordinance to all construction workers.
"If we can't do what HB 2127 keeps us from doing, what can we do? What I saw, in a letter, is applying it to city contracts. If someone is doing work with the city, then would something like that be able to be taken up?" Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia said.
Rocha Garcia said she wanted more information about the city's options. Councilman John Courage was also concerned about how such an ordinance would be implemented.
"I don't think we can impose this on every construction project that goes on in the city. But like a lot of requirements that we have though public works, or other departments, we can get contractors to agree to terms that we want to impart in our contracts," Courage said. "If people don't want to comply to what we come up with they don't have to do business with the city."
Castillo still hoped the ordinance, which she said she believed to be unconstitutional, could be applied more broadly.
"We should take action to challenge that. I would like to move forward to amend this item... to include mandatory breaks of no less than 10 minutes per four hours for outdoor workers employed by entities receiving funds from the City of San Antonio," Castillo said.
Castillo's motion was seconded and later passed.
The ordinance is set to be discussed at a City Council meeting in August, though council members haven't set a specific date as of Thursday.
Castillo also told KENS 5 she believes HB 2127 is overly vague and that could benefit San Antonio if the state took action.
"While it lists specific buckets (of policy), it doesn't go into great detail of what it is going to restrict," she added. "I believe we owe it to all city workers, those in construction in particular, to prioritize our health and safety and continue to advocate and move forward with this ordinance. It's nothing extreme. What is extreme is limiting our ability to give workers a water break."
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