Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C
Following a record-breaking hot June, three major European trade unions representing millions are urging the European Commission to mandate heat-protection laws. They propose suspending work for demanding jobs at 30C and low-intensity roles at 32.5C to combat rising workplace heat stress. With current rules varying wildly across the continent, these unions argue that extreme weather is now a workplace reality requiring enforceable legal safeguards to prevent injuries and deaths.
Extreme weather is now a workplace reality across Europe… Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time, but workers are still being sent into increasingly extreme weather conditions without clear and enforceable protections.
- mamonster
>The union said employers should take steps to cool down workplaces once temperatures exceed 24C, with workers able to stop working if temperatures reach 30C, or 27C for those doing manual labour or working outdoors.
Geneva already has a version of this. You have to stop outside work at 13h00 unless it's necessary, in which case you have to take 45min breaks for every 15 minutes of work. However the threshold isn't 27C but rather like 32C (from what I understand)
- lrae
(Slightly) better article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/08/unions-e...
OP's submission seems very UK / TUC centric, also doesn't include something many here are bringing up, that they indeed plan to base it on the wet bulb temperature.
- zarzavat
I wish that society can learn about and apply the concept of a wet bulb temperature.
A dry bulb temperature of 30C contains little information regarding safety. Humans are wet and we cool ourselves with evaporation.
- josefritzishere
Anything above 86 F? That's the whole summer. I see this as a negotiating position. They'll probably agree on something closer to 33 C (~90F). They have to. If they do nothing people will literally die. Climate change has consequences.
- RetroTechie
While they're at it, include schools too. Many school buildings have inadequate ventilation or climate control.
Sweating in >30°C high-CO2 spaces doesn't improve student's learning.
- vicnov
How countries with wet/hot climate that achieved economic success have solved it?
Because my cynical mind tells me that the only thing it will result in is
1. Extremely low productivity
2. Hiring outside of unions.
Union will push for “union only jobs” and that’s going to result in even less productivity OR robotization of agriculture and construction.
- firesteelrain
US Military developed the wet bulb index in the 1950s for this purpose and it’s still used today.
- pvaldes
I heard about a man that was finishing his work working in a greenhouse. He felt ill and dizzy and tried to go home. Sadly the car was parked in the sun. He entered in the car, fainted and died by heat stroke.