Hospitality, ski areas and fair organizers tell committee extreme-temperature thresholds would be hard to implement

Industry witnesses told the House Committee on General & Housing on March 24 that straightforward temperature thresholds could create difficult and sometimes impractical compliance obligations across Vermont's diverse workplaces.

Brian Madiato, executive director of the Vermont Lodging Association and an owner-operator in Manchester, said the hospitality sector supports safety but warned that some proposed thresholds could have outsized consequences for tourism-dependent businesses. "When I looked at some of these states... agriculture was coming up a lot, construction was coming up a lot, but not necessarily the hospitality space," Madiato said, adding that the sector represents "upwards of 30,000 employees" and serves "close to 16 million visitors each year." He urged the committee to follow federal guidance and BOSHA best practices rather than adopt prescriptive state rules that could have unintended impacts on seasonality and operations.

Molly Mahar, president of the nonprofit Ski Vermont, described extensive cold-weather training, daily operational adjustments and role-specific safety practices at ski areas. She said ski areas employ nearly 7,000 people and reported 18 total complaints from industry workers between 2020 and 2026, with three temperature-related complaints and one temperature complaint investigated and found unfounded. "The health and safety of ski area employees is not optional," Mahar told the committee, and she said existing training and operational measures protect staff in routine winter and summer activity.

Tim Shay, executive director of the Champlain Valley Exposition, spoke for fairs and outdoor-event operators and highlighted logistical constraints: large, transient campuses, volunteer workforces, and frequent set-up/tear-down operations make placing and maintaining calibrated wet-bulb thermometers and fixed mitigation points difficult. He said implementing distributed measurement and mitigation across a 130-acre campus, midways or mobile carnival operations "would be a real challenge."

Industry witnesses and department staff converged on some points: workplace heat and cold hazards are a shared concern, and existing BOSHA guidance and employer best practices form a foundation for protection. But witnesses argued that statutory language would need careful tailoring on measurement, exemptions, who bears equipment costs, and how standards apply to mobile or semi-open workplaces to avoid creating gaps or impractical compliance burdens.

The committee paused for a short break and asked staff to provide additional documentation and examples requested during testimony.