STATUTORY MAXIMUM WORKING TEMPERATURE

Motion Text

That this House notes that workers in the UK lack adequate legal safeguards from working in uncomfortably high temperatures, owing to the lack of a statutory maximum temperature at which employers would have to introduce control measures, such as breaks, access to water or air conditioning; further notes that this would correct an anomaly in current legislation where a legal minimum working temperature exists, but a corresponding upper limit does not exist in statute; appreciates that excessive heat in the workplace is responsible for heat stress and thermal discomfort, and can impact seriously on health, well-being and productivity; recognises that this is a matter of concern for workers in a wide range of workplaces including offices, schools, shops, bakeries, vehicles, trains, call-centres, theatres and construction sites; and calls on the Government to adopt the recommendations of the TUC and joint union Cool It campaign to introduce into law a maximum working temperature of 30 degrees Celsius or 27 degrees Celsius for those doing strenuous work, beyond which employers would have a statutory duty to introduce effective control measures.