"Florida company cited over worker's heat death amid state's ban on heat illness prevention,"

The Department of Labor on Monday said it cited a Florida company for its lack of preparedness to prevent heat-related illness after a heatstroke killed a 26-year-old worker from Mexico in September 2023.

McNeill Labor Management Inc. -- a company that provides contract laborers for agricultural markets throughout the United States -- was cited in the investigation by the federal Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which found that the unidentified Mexican national had died from heat-related injuries while working in an open sugar cane field.

An OSHA investigation found that he had experienced symptoms consistent with a heat-related illness and soon after collapsed.

The heat index reportedly had reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit in Palm Beach County, where the man, who was legally visiting the United States on the federal H-2A program for temporary or seasonal non-immigrant workers under a Biden administration pledge to "expand lawful pathways as an alternative to irregular migration," had later died.

The Labor Department says the migrant worker's death could have been avoided had the Belle Glade, Fla.-based McNeill labor management company taken the effort to implement heat-related safety rules to protect workers...