TALLAHASSEE — Without fanfare and after business hours, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that prevents local governments from requiring worker protections from heat exposure and forbidding them to impose minimum wage requirements on contractors.

The bill, backed by business groups, was fiercely debated and received final approval from the House and Senate on March 8, the final day of the session.

DeSantis’ office revealed that he had approved the measure (HB 433) in a news release without comment on Thursday night. For much of his administration, including Friday, the governor has held news conferences to celebrate bill signings.

In a statement, Bill Herrle, Florida director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said the new law would help “create a stable environment where owners can grow their businesses.”

“Small business owners don’t have the time or the resources to navigate a confusing and contradictory array of local ordinances that go beyond [what] the state already mandates,” Herrle said.

But more than 90 organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, the League of Women Voters of Florida, the Farmworker Association of Florida and the NAACP Florida State Conference signed letters asking DeSantis to veto the bill.

“Floridians feel it getting hotter and understand how difficult and dangerous it is to labor in the sun and heat,” opponents said in an April 2 letter. “Preempting local governments’ ability to protect workers from climate-caused extreme heat is inhumane and will have enormous negative economic impacts when lost productivity is taken into account.”

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The heat restrictions came after the Miami-Dade County Commission last year considered a proposal to require construction and agriculture companies to ensure that workers have access to water and to give them 10-minute breaks in the shade every two hours when the heat index is at least 95 degrees.

The bill also would prevent local governments from mandating wages paid by contractors. The statewide minimum wage is $12 an hour and will increase to $13 an hour on Sept. 30. Under a 2020 constitutional amendment, the minimum wage will continue to rise to $15 an hour in 2026 and be adjusted annually for inflation starting in 2027.

The law will negate Orlando’s Responsible Contractor Policy, which requires businesses with city contracts worth at least $100,000 to pay workers at least $15 per hour. The city opposed the bill.

“We believe that contractor policies such as ours are best made at the local level where locally elected officials can take into account the unique circumstances of our regional economy and the needs of community,” Ashley Papagni, a city spokeswoman, said last month.

During the legislative session, other bill opponents said preventing local governments from imposing higher wage requirements on contractors would effectively mean workers in some cities and counties would have their pay cut.

But House sponsor Tiffany Esposito, R-Fort Myers, said it would save tax dollars and that businesses should be able to determine workers’ wages. Supporters also pointed to the federal Occupational and Safety Health Administration’s ability to take action against employers related to worker heat exposure.

DeSantis Watch, a frequent critic of the governor, blasted DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Legislature for approving the new law.

“Florida’s workers deserve higher wages, protections from greedy corporations who profit from their labor while refusing to pay their fair share in taxes, and policies that will improve their lives, not the bottom lines of the donors who have stuffed the campaign accounts of Ron DeSantis and his Republican allies in the legislature,” Natasha Sutherland, the group’s constituencies director, said in a statement Thursday night.

Staff writer Ryan Gillespie and News Service of Florida contributed to this report.