Labor Laws

What is the name of your state? PA

**I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, I didn't know where to post this, but I'm hoping someone can help me out. If there is a forum for this, please let me know.**

My husband's job is keeping him at work under poor working conditions. B/C of a storm last night, they are without power. The only thing they have is running water. The is no electricity, no A/C (it's a warehouse, so it's hot), no water fountain (not a big issue, but the soda machines work on electricity, so the employees cannot get anything to drink).

Where can I find the laws pertaining to working conditions? What is considered important to keep a business open? They sell electronics to distributors, so theymainly deal with packing and shipping.

Thanks in advance.

Your husband's employer is not doing anything illegal. No laws require that an employer have electricity and air conditioning. I'm sure the power and AC services will be resumed as soon as the electric company can fix things.

Thanks for the reply, Beth3. According to the Electric Company, service might not be restored for up to 3 days. Does this make a difference?

no, it is not required for an employer to have electricity, air conditioning etc. Think of a construction site, is there a/c or electricity there?? Hopefully they will get the repairs completed quickly, in the meantime, I would ask management to provide water and ice, or bring it myself.

vwlonewolf said:

Thanks for the reply, Beth3. According to the Electric Company, service might not be restored for up to 3 days. Does this make a difference?

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No. Many, many people work in environments without air conditioning, although having electricity is the norm. But there is no law that prohibits your husband's employer from remaining open.

If they close:

a) All the hourly paid employees will be unpaid for those days, which will be a considerable hardship on them.
b) The company's customers will go unsupplied and make take their business elsewhere.
c) The company will lose a tremendous amount of sales revenues.

None of that is good news for your husband and his co-workers, even if they are working in rather primitive conditions for a few days. If your husband wants some soft drinks at work, he can bring some cold cans in in a small cooler.

Another workers should be grateful for their jobs speech.

And its all true...

However, if it is beyond just comfort, but the loss of power impacts critical safety equipment, *INCLUDING VENTILATION* or makes it impossible to perform the job in a safe manor...

Hey lets work in this dark warehouse... OHHHH GOD MY LEG WHHYYYYYYYYYY!?!?!?!?!

Its fine to use candles around bales of paper...


Just tell your husband to not worry about it. Be grateful. Forget basic safety, becuase if your employers negligence results in serious injury, you can look forward to a protracted legal battle to get a fraction of his salary

YAY!

xylene said:

Another workers should be grateful for their jobs speech.

And its all true...

However, if it is beyond just comfort, but the loss of power impacts critical safety equipment, *INCLUDING VENTILATION* or makes it impossible to perform the job in a safe manor...

Hey lets work in this dark warehouse... OHHHH GOD MY LEG WHHYYYYYYYYYY!?!?!?!?!

Its fine to use candles around bales of paper...


Just tell your husband to not worry about it. Be grateful. Forget basic safety, becuase if your employers negligence results in serious injury, you can look forward to a protracted legal battle to get a fraction of his salary

YAY!

Click to expand...

I agree with you totally, if the poster had mentioned any safety hazards, my answer would have been totally different. but she didn't.

fairisfair said:

I agree with you totally, if the poster had mentioned any safety hazards, my answer would have been totally different. but she didn't.

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I was just responding to beth3's vantage point, that made everything seem hunky-dory and that electrical power was the norm, but not required.

Having worked in warehouses, I feel I suggest a few basic, and serious, safety issues. (like how do you use a skid-ster without no light. How do you safely provide light. a few other big ones come to mind too.

They aren't so counter-intuitve or experienced based that a smart HR person couldn't mention them... even glancingly.

So I agree, but It would be crummy if these workers got hurt by an employer not using common sense.

And while not being able to get a cold Coke is not major issue to most, after you have been in a sub-basement, you might think it was key safety equipment.

xylene said:

I was just responding to beth3's vantage point, that made everything seem hunky-dory and that electrical power was the norm, but not required.

Having worked in warehouses, I feel I suggest a few basic, and serious, safety issues. (like how do you use a skid-ster without no light. How do you safely provide light. a few other big ones come to mind too.

They aren't so counter-intuitve or experienced based that a smart HR person couldn't mention them... even glancingly.

So I agree, but It would be crummy if these workers got hurt by an employer not using common sense.

And while not being able to get a cold Coke is not major issue to most, after you have been in a sub-basement, you might think it was key safety equipment.

Click to expand...

I see your point, I am thinking of bright and sunny AZ where we do everything we can to keep the light out, and just opening a door would be enough. hopefully OP will answer and let us know if there are any safety issues.

Thanks for all the replies.

No there are no safety issues that I am aware of. The only thing that hubby said about trying to work y'day was having to use flashlights to find the items they needed and having to use rolling ladders for the items high on the shelfs. Since it is a warehouse, there are NO windows, just the bay doors for the UPS trucks to back up to. To me that doesn't seem all that dangerous, but I don't work there to know what "normal" conditions are like.

I know that having working soda machines are not that "important", but hubby's concern was the fact that they have no water fountain in the building (b/c they relied on the soda machines), so they had to run out to get drinks themselves (on their break or lunch) and the boss didn't offer to pay for the drinks (I think that would be the LEAST he could do!). They didn't know in advance that the power was going to be out, so they couldn't plan ahead and bring in a cooler full of drinks to last all day (hubby did do that this morning).

Thanks again for the info.

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Just wanted to update:
I just talked to hubby and they had power when they went in this morning.

xylene said:

I was just responding to beth3's vantage point, that made everything seem hunky-dory and that electrical power was the norm, but not required.

Having worked in warehouses, I feel I suggest a few basic, and serious, safety issues. (like how do you use a skid-ster without no light. How do you safely provide light. a few other big ones come to mind too.

They aren't so counter-intuitve or experienced based that a smart HR person couldn't mention them... even glancingly.

So I agree, but It would be crummy if these workers got hurt by an employer not using common sense.

And while not being able to get a cold Coke is not major issue to most, after you have been in a sub-basement, you might think it was key safety equipment.

Click to expand...

I never said everything was hunky-dory and I've worked in warehouse environments too. It's also quite possible that there is sufficient natural light that there are no glaring safety hazards and people aren't driving forklifts and wandring around "blind" in the dark.

All the OP complained about is that there was no AC and no electricity. I've had employees working in die casting and on shrink ovens on 110 degree days. I'm sure they'd feel the warehouse environment the OP described would be blissful by comparison.