Too hot to work? Use this heatwave to organise for change! 

Currently, the UK is sweltering under an intense, historic June heatwave, with the Met Office issuing Amber Extreme Warnings, and temperatures forecast to climb up to a staggering 38°C across parts of the UK.

Yet, as we sweat through our shifts, the same old systemic problem remains that there is still no legal maximum working temperature in the UK. 

DIY hacks, like placing ice in front of fans, or freezing your water bottles are great short-term survival tactics. However, let’s be honest that whether you are working in a warehouse, office or are on the road, a bowl of melting ice isn’t a solution. It’s a bandage on a gaping health and safety hazard.

To permanently change how your workplace handles extreme weather, you need to move beyond asking for permission and start organising. That happens through two major steps: securing union recognition with Community, and electing Health and Safety Representatives.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidelines state indoor workplace temperatures must be “reasonable.” Because the law avoids setting a ceiling as to what is deemed “too hot”, employers have a massive amount of wiggle room to decide just exactly what “reasonable” means. Often, employers will try to keep businesses running exactly as normal while employees slowly bake.

However, while there is no maximum temperature number, employers do have a legal duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to protect your health, safety and welfare. When an employer refuses to acknowledge that a 35°C workplace violates that duty, individual workers who complain are easily dismissed or ignored. But a recognised union cannot be ignored.

How does union recognition help tackle the heat?

Union recognition means your employer is legally required to sit down and negotiate with your union over terms, conditions, and critically, workplace policies.

When Community is recognised in your workplace, you can collectively bargain for a formal Extreme Weather Policy. Instead of hoping that management feels generous during a heatwave, a union-negotiated policy cannot be ignored. This could include:

• Agreeing on a specific temperature threshold where work must slow down, dress codes can be relaxed or abandoned, or operations are paused until temperatures drop.
• More paid rest breaks to ensure employees stay cool and rested.
• Investing in permanent structural fixes, such as air conditioning, ventilation systems and reflective window coverings.

How can Health & Safety Reps protect you during a heatwave?

Community Health & Safety Representatives possess formidable powers that ordinary employees don’t. They have the legal right to:

• Investigate Hazards: They can formally inspect the workplace when temperatures spike, document dangerous conditions, and use industrial thermometers to prove the environment is unsafe.
• Investigate Complaints: If a colleague is suffering from dizziness, nausea or heat exhaustion, Community Health & Safety Reps can formally investigate the incident and hold management accountable.
• Force Management’s Hand: They can issue formal notices to management requiring them to resolve safety failures, and management is legally bound to respond in writing.

When management tell an individual worker to “just get on with it”, it is hard to fight back alone. When you are backed by recognition, and a Community Health & Safety Rep, it becomes much harder for management to ignore the problem.

This week’s record-breaking heatwave is proof that extreme summer weather is no longer a rare anomaly in the UK, it is our new reality. We cannot keep relying on temporary fixes and the goodwill of management to survive the summer. 

If your workplace is currently a sauna, don’t just wait for it to cool down. Talk to your colleagues, get in touch with Community today and use this heatwave as an organising opportunity.