Heat and work: European trade unions are once again calling for legislation on maximum temperatures

Brussels – Heat and work: it is time for the European Union to consider these two issues together and draw up “a European legislation on maximum working temperatures that guarantees all workers the right to paid breaks and ensures employers provide access to water, shade, and protective clothing.” This is the call from the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which is once again raising the issue of working conditions in summer. 

The ETUC draws inspiration from news reports and current affairs, which speak Italian: the strikes called by delivery riders in Milan, Florence, and Bologna against the platforms that force them to carry on with “business as usual”, when there is very little that is actually usual. “When temperatures exceed 38 degrees, the likelihood of accidents at work increases by 10–15 per cent,” reports the European Trade Union Confederation. Not only that: “It is estimated that every year 277,000 accidents and 230 deaths are linked to heat stress in the workplace” and, in light of this, “only 15 per cent of workers say that measures have been taken to ensure their safety.”

 “We are calling on politicians and employers to work with trade unions to organise work during periods of high temperatures in a sensible and safe manner,” emphasises ETUC General Secretary, Esther Lynch, who insists: “Building competitiveness does not mean ignoring this issue, but tackling it through dialogue with trade unions at European, sectoral, and company level.” 

This is not a new call from the European Trade Union Confederation. On the contrary, the ETUC is reiterating its earlier calls for measures to tackle a problem that can no longer be postponed. The idea of adjusting working patterns in line with maximum temperature limits, taking into account differences across sectors, is, for the ETUC, the new priority for the world of work. In a different way the European Central Bank had also suggested the introduction of heat-related measures to safeguard productivity and competitiveness. Now, the delivery riders’ strikes are bringing the issue back to the fore, with the ETUC warning: “If no action is taken to ensure workers’ safety during periods of high temperatures, summer will increasingly become a hotbed of strikes across Europe.“