Labour is considering making it illegal to work when it is “too hot” as part of measures to “protect people from the impacts of climate change”. The Telegraph has more.
Emma Reynolds, the Environment Secretary, has said she will “carefully consider” proposals including a maximum working temperature that would force firms to let workers down tools during heatwaves.
The measure, recommended by the influential Climate Change Committee (CCC), would aim to “incentivise” businesses to protect workers by keeping their workplaces cool.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the workplace regulator, is developing plans for extra protection during hot weather, but is expected to stop short of setting a specific legal maximum.
The controversial recommendation for an upper limit is set out in a new report from the CCC advising ministers on the risks posed by climate change in the UK and how best to manage them.
It calls for a raft of measures to protect people against worsening heat, floods and droughts, including the rollout of air conditioning in hospitals, care homes, schools and prisons.
In a list of key proposals to help the UK adapt to more intense heat, the CCC urged the Government to “set maximum temperature regulations for workplaces”.
The report said: “Maximum working temperature regulations would address the increasing risks that high temperatures pose to workers’ safety and incentivise the deployment of the necessary cooling. Businesses are largely responsible for investing in their own adaptations but must ensure that workplaces and working practices are safe for employees, including for those working outside.”
It pointed to examples in Spain, which sets maximum legal indoor temperatures of 27°C for sedentary work and 25°C for light physical work, and other countries that enforce upper limits for outdoor labour.
The committee noted that Spanish employers are responsible for meeting the requirements and staff can report them to labour inspections or unions if they fail to comply.
In response to the CCC’s report, Reynolds said: “We are acting to protect people and places from the impacts of climate change that are already being felt across the UK – from flooding to extreme heat and drought.
“Robust, independent science is essential and we will carefully consider the climate change committee’s latest recommendations to drive further action.”
Of course, forcing employers to turn up the air conditioning is hardly going to help them use less energy and reduce their ‘carbon footprint’.
Worth reading in full.
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WTF. Air-conditioning uses electricity, which is not only expensive but is also becoming scarce because of Labour’s ridiculous policies.
It needn’t be logical, Cris. Logic is for Conspiracy Theorists.
I recommend the evisceration of Milibandism by the former Seceretary of State for Energy Claire Coutinho, available on YouTube, during the debate on plans to close North Sea exploration forever. She’s one heck of a performer (to a near-empty Chamber), makes KB look like a carthorse. My only caveat is that part of her Tory government title included Nut Zero. Maybe, just maybe, the current Tory leadership has seen the light.
Too little, too late….
The next thing will be to make it illegal to work when it’s too cold. This will be just as stupid, as roads won’t be cleared, railway lines unfrozen, water mains unprepared and damaged power lines left unrestored.
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first drive mad.
Talk to the ‘Third Country Nationals’ in Saudi Arabia about working when it’s hot. They don’t stop working until temperatures reach 50 degrees C.
How can business afford to turn up the aircon when we have world leading electricity prices?
Small businesses won’t be able to, they want to drive them out of business, just leave public sector and massive global corporations
world beating, Gezza
Does that include farm workers, military?
Madness.
Whst about minimum temperatures?
Thinking about russian and ukrainian infantry with frost bitten fingers and toes?
Antarctic climate scientists when its -50 celcius outside…
What a wunch of bankers.
They’ll be glad to abandon their tanks . . . .
One reason that we don’t already have this legislation is that it is essentially impossible to legislate for jobs (although maybe we no longer have those) that involve great heat.
I’m thinking of the chap who, stripped to the waist, grabs the end of a piece of white-hot rolled steel strip with tongs and passes it back into some rollers after bending it 180 degrees. Perhaps we no longer make anything like this any more in Britain.
I’m also amused by the situation that occurs in offices where quite frequently many ladies are sitting shivering while clothed in multiple layers and wearing scarves while the men are mostly clothed in short-sleeve shirts. When asked if the temperature in the office could be increased, the men’s response was that they had no more clothing layers that could be removed so unless the ladies could cope with semi-naked men’s bodies around them the answer was it needed to stay at a temperature where this didn’t need to happen.
That is absolutely the case.
In offices it is the ladies who set the a/c or heating.
In the offices I’ve worked in, most of the women would be happy to have semi naked men around the place, just not the ones who work there…
How are you going to keep your workplace cool in a blackout caused by Acquired Miliband Deficiency Syndrome?
What if the “Robust, independent science” concludes that “climate change” is bullshit and a scam, will they carefully consider that recommendation?
What if people want to work, like the self employed and sole traders? What about firefighters, I’ve heard some of those fires can get quite hot, will they have to disengage?
Oh kev poor boy, what matters is the process, not the outcomes.
Do keep up.
Thank you for being so patronising!
Heh, presumably one of your jobs is to bite people that don’t follow the process?
Only if they’ve got tasty looking ankles
And assuming its not too hot of course.
They use Spain as an example. It would appear that their “upper limits for outdoor labour” are between 36-42 degrees depending on local averages.
One must assume that we’ll be setting our “upper limits” in a similar range?
So that’s most commercial kitchens closed down then
You can buy cooling jackets, I think I read that motorcyclists are a major market
You can buy cooling jackets, I think I read that motorcyclists are a major market
Having seen road workmen in Spain laying tarmac in blazing 30 C heat in the middle of a sunny city day while kitted out in protective gear, I wondered how they could possibly stand it without passing out, as I nearly did just walking past them. I wonder the same about firefighters all over the world, and steel industry workers.
(That’s a great photo, by the way.)
Oleander predominates the central reservations of motorways and dual carriageways out here in Spain and they are trimmed regularly to keep them looking spic ‘n’ span. In summer, the maintenance guys are out in 30C plus. kitted out in protective gear to do the job, surrounded by blazing hot tarmac.
Talking from experience, working in the heat and getting a proper sweat on is fantastic for the health. Just make sure you drink enough water and eat enough salt.
I guess it’s because it’s what they do, and are used to it and their environment… I’d struggle massively as well, same as you, but these workers are clearly built for it…
How do you combat a system that is designed to help the unproductive loot the productive?
I’m not interested in the details of this latest looting scheme. It’s just one more. I don’t want to fight every little battle as if each one had some reasonable merit to it. I want to tackle the entire problem at once. How do we stop the relentless looting?
Too hot?
In Mud island?
Don’t make me laugh, I might choke on my Pringles.
FFS.
Remove the problem, the government and its many enablers.
That does seem a sensible and common approach – defund the machine…