Last week, many departments were placed on orange and even red alert due to the high temperatures. As we know, this is likely to happen more and more often in the years to come. The Labor Code contains certain provisions to protect employees from this high heat. A bill has been tabled to strengthen them.
Heat wave: what the Labor Code provides
The Labor Code does not provide for an upper temperature limit. It only requires companies, in closed premises where employees are required to work, to ensure the regular renewal of the air, and to avoid exaggerated rises in temperature (Labour Code art. R. 4222-1). Regardless of the means used to cool the air (air conditioning, fogger, fan).
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What is meant by an exaggerated temperature? The National Institute for Research and Safety (INRS) considers that above 30°C for a sedentary employee, and 28°C for work requiring physical activity, heat can constitute a risk. And that working in hot weather, especially above 33°C, is dangerous.
The Labor Code also requires the provision of drinking and fresh water to employees.
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For outdoor workers, the obligation is heavier: the employer must provide at least 3 liters of water per day for each worker on a construction site (Labour Code, art. R. 4534-143).
Outdoor workstations must also be arranged so that they are protected, as far as possible, against atmospheric conditions (shaded areas, shelters, ventilated, air-conditioned rooms, etc.).
The employer must also include the risk of high heat in his single document and implement preventive measures against this risk.
Concretely, the employer’s safety obligation obliges him to act to protect employees, but there are no really imposed rules, more a list of good practices such as:
- adapt working hours as far as possible (for example by starting earlier in the morning);
- favor teleworking;
- plan additional breaks during the hottest hours;
- remind everyone of the signs and symptoms of heatstroke (headaches, fatigue, dry and hot skin, etc.);
- encourage employees to monitor each other for any symptoms of heat stroke and report them.
Please note, if Météo France activates red vigilance, the Ministry of Labor indicates that a daily reassessment of the risks incurred by each employee must be carried out according to the temperature and its evolution during the day, the nature of the work and the age and state of health of the workers. Depending on this reassessment, the employer must review the organization of work to guarantee the health of the workers and go so far as to stop the work if the assessment shows that the measures taken are insufficient. It is therefore up to the employer to judge the situation, nothing obliges him to stop work automatically in the event of a red alert.
Are all these measures sufficient today? With global warming, there will be more heat waves and this is why the question of strengthening the existing rules is more topical than ever.
As of this year, the Government adopted a national heat wave management plan (see our article “Heat wave: a new plan to manage heat waves”) and made a new guide available to companies. It is essentially a question of informing companies, of making them aware of what to do and what precautions to take.
But the Labor Code has not yet changed.
Heatwave: a bill that is debating
A bill was tabled at the end of July by several deputies to adapt the Labor Code to the consequences of global warming.
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The explanatory memorandum recalls that heat has effects on the health of workers such as fatigue, nausea, headaches, but also more serious and sometimes fatal disorders such as dehydration and heat stroke which can occur depending on the arduousness of the the task and the duration of the exposure. In 2022, in France, 7 people died as a result of the heat wave in their workplace.
Among the strongest measures of this bill, it is planned to prohibit submitting a worker to an activity in the event of activation of level 4 of meteorological vigilance (red), excluding professions determined by decree.
In case of vigilance 3 (orange), work would not be prohibited but limited to 6 hours per day. The employer would take the necessary measures to adapt the workstation, including the possible use of telework.
Another proposed change: regular break times without loss of pay when the temperature exceeds a certain threshold in an indoor or outdoor workplace. Concretely, the break time would be:
- 20 consecutive minutes every 2 hours when the temperature exceeds 33 degrees in an indoor or outdoor workplace;
- 10 consecutive minutes every 2 hours in the event of temperature in an outdoor workplace above 28°, and over 30° C in an indoor workplace.
Some measures would concern the construction industry:
- make bad weather unemployment automatic in the event of temperatures that are too high or too low;
- allow the labor inspectorate to temporarily stop work or activity on a construction site in the event of atmospheric conditions presenting risks to the health and safety of workers.
It now remains to be seen whether this bill will be retained and placed on the agenda of the National Assembly.
Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt said in the media that setting temperature thresholds is a “ fake good idea ». « To say that one stops working from a certain temperature, that does not hold. […] We cannot organize working time around a thermometer. We prefer to make the choice of responsibility with labor inspection controls ».
Christophe Béchu, the Minister for the Ecological Transition, meanwhile, opened a breach by judging it logical to see whether we should not go towards reduced days even if he first relies on “collective feedback”. To be continued !
To prevent the risk of high temperatures, Tissot Editions suggest that you organize a quarter of an hour on safety thanks to the sheet “I work in high temperatures in summer”.
Bill no. 1587 aimed at adapting the Labor Code to the consequences of global warming, registered at the Presidency of the National Assembly on July 20, 2023
Anne-Lise Castell
Lawyer in social law and editor at Tissot Editions
Graduated from the Master 2 DPRT of the Faculty of Law of Montpellier and expert in social law, I am specialized in legal writing. Within Tissot Editions, I participate in the animation …
2023-08-29 19:31:40
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