No air conditioning in the office: what are the rights of employees during a heat wave?

This Monday promises to be one of the hottest in France, with 15 departments on red alert due to the heat wave. Temperatures will flirt across the western half of the country with 40°, enough to make work difficult, including in offices. And especially those present in glass buildings. The situation is even more complicated if these offices do not have air conditioning.

In this case, does the worker have special rights in case of high temperatures? The Labor Code does not oblige companies to install air conditioning, but the employer is subject, with respect to each worker, to a safety obligation that obliges him to take the necessary measures (obligation of means) to guarantee his safety and protect his physical integrity. and mental health.

Obligation of means and security

This obligation of means does not imply the installation of air conditioning, but the employer must ensure that the air is renewed and ventilated in such a way as to avoid excessive increases in temperature in closed premises (article R4222-1 of the Labor Code).

As Thierry Meillat, a lawyer for Hogan Lovells, points out in BFM Business, French regulations differ from those applied in Germany where “temperature levels are set, 35, 36 degrees (which give rise) to different obligations that apply”.

But in the event of an extreme heat wave (red alert), the employer has new obligations.

Daily risk reassessment in case of red watch

You must also make a daily reassessment of the risks assumed by each employee function:

• the temperature and its evolution during the day;
• the nature of the work to be carried out, in particular outdoors or in thermal environments that already have high temperatures, or that involve a physical load;
• the age and state of health of the workers: special attention to pregnant women, people with chronic pathologies or with disabilities, etc.

Finally, the company “must establish a risk prevention document that since March 31 is mandatory for all companies starting with a single employee. Therefore, we must plan what we are going to do”, for example, in case of heat wave, emphasizes Thierry Meillat. .