Extreme heat hits workers and trade unions in Europe are calling for protection

Nausea, blackouts, even death. The heatwave that hit Europe highlighted the risks of extreme temperatures for some workers, prompting unions to demand greater protection against climate change.

Construction workers working on the burning asphalt. Farm workers sweat profusely under the plastic greenhouses. People forced to work in warehouses without air conditioning …

Difficult for the general population to bear, the extreme temperatures of recent days have become truly unbearable for some sectors of workers, with tragedies occurring in southern European countries.

hospitalizations and deaths

In Spain, an employee in his fifties He died on Friday after suffering from heat stroke.a phenomenon in which the body overheats, when he worked in an industrial warehouse in Móstoles, in the Madrid region.

According to the rescuers, his body temperature was 42.9 ºC when he was rescued, after suffering convulsions and fainting.

A 60-year-old cleaner, hired for a month by a company that cleans the streets of Madrid, died over the weekend while working, while another 58-year-old cleaner was hospitalized on Tuesday.

In early July, two people working in the field, aged 20 and 57, died in Italy while working at temperatures above 40ºC, one in Campania, the other in Calabria (both in the south), according to local media.

these deaths has rekindled the debate in the country on the impact of heat waves, a year after the death of a 27-year-old Malian seasonal worker led several Italian regions to ban working in the fields during the hottest hours.

urgent measures

For trade unions it is more urgent than ever reconsider the impact of temperatures on employeeswhen the frequency of heat events is expected to double in Europe by 2050.

Events such as deaths in Madrid “should never happen”, the two main Spanish trade unions, the UGT and the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO), said in a statement, calling for “the time or intensity of exposure” to be reduced. hot.

In Spain, the United Kingdom or France, where the heat causes deaths every year, the authorities have multiplied the authorities in recent days prevention messages, asking workers that they can work remotely and take care of others.

But this is not enough in the eyes of the unions.

“Europe needs to define maximum temperatures to function”, the European Trade Union Confederation estimated on Twitter, which asked that it is possible to “stop working when it is too hot”.

A message similar to that of the British trade union federation TUC, which asked the government to set a “limit temperature” of 30 ° C above which workers must stop working.

For CCOO, other measures could significantly reduce risks, such as establishing long breaks or training sessions for employers.

According to the union, “all positions with possible exposure to excessive heat” must also be identified.

An approach also made by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), a research center in Brussels, which suggested in a report to consider as a “occupational risk” means “thermal stress related to weather conditions”.

“Currently many workers suffer from the inertia of their employers, while the authorities tend to turn a blind eye” to the consequences of the heat for “workers in precarious situations”, complained this analysis center the most affected.

A sign that we are beginning to raise awareness, the employees of the Madrid cleaning services have succeeded on Tuesday an agreement to be able to interrupt work during the hottest hours.

“We will continue to be alert and vigilant in these situations,” left government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez said, promising labor inspections to force companies to protect their employees.

Source: AFP

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