AC has been broken for almost 3 weeks now, debating whether I should wait it out or call OSHA
Hi all. I work at a small business pizza (and other Italian inspired foods) restaurant in California. It's hot in general where I live 80+ degrees for a lot of the year but now in basically summer it's 90+ degrees. Our AC broke near the end of May, which mind you our AC only lasts around a year anyways cause they put in a swamp cooler and it's never maintained. So every year usually always in the summer it breaks. I've been working here for 4 years now but this is the longest I've ever seen it not been replaced.
This past week has been terrible. I've been getting headaches and feeling nauseous at peak heat times. Been hanging out in our walk in cooler a lot to get a little relief but we've just been so busy that it's hard to get a real break from the heat (besides my lunch and my 15). The store also has been hotter than it has been outside especially with our 450 degree oven. Yesterday at peak heat time it was 97 degrees inside while it was 92 degrees outside.
My manager joked to me last week saying I should call OSHA and they will shut us down and we might get paid out. I kinda started debating it. But then the owner came on Tuesday of this week saying it will be fixed on Thursday and no one came. No one came even yesterday. Now it's the weekend and I don't think anyone will be here. I don't work today but I work tomorrow and looking at the weather it's going to be 96 on Sunday.
What should I do?
Posted Jun 13, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC