The Labour Party’s flagship Employment Rights Bill is currently in the final stage of its legislative journey in the House of Lords. Peers are making a final round of amendments to the bill — hailed by the government as the “biggest improvement in workers’ rights for a generation” — in the wake of a sweltering heat wave that has scorched much of Europe.
With temperatures recently soaring past 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in countries like Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal, and in the UK nearing 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit (just off the back of the second-hottest June on record), many parts of the continent have issued serious weather alerts and taken measures like closing schools or winding down nuclear power operations. This extreme event — fueled by a persistent “heat dome” over the continent — is testing the resilience of public health systems, infrastructure, and adaptation strategies; all while we are warned that such conditions are set to become increasingly frequent under climate breakdown.
While it has been watered down considerably from what many initially hoped, the Employment Rights Bill represents a rare positive intervention from this government. But as temperatures rise, there remains a glaring gap in the legislation: provisions to ensure worker safety in very hot weather.
Recent research at the Autonomy Institute has found that, in the coming decades, millions of workers in the UK will be exposed to dangerous working temperatures. By the end of the 2020s, we found that almost two-thirds of UK workers could find themselves working in extreme heat waves, with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius. By 2050, extreme summer heat waves could leave 27.1 million workers exposed to dangerous temperatures.
Our findings underscore the desperate need for new legislation to ensure workers are not forced to work in unsafe conditions. We’ve set out possible measures in our recent…
Auteur: Phil Jones
