As part of a UTS research team, I have released a new report with the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, looking at the impacts of heat stress on workers in Australia. Prepared by UTS researchers as part of the Too Hot to Work Project, the report outlines why working in climate change-driven extreme heat is a growing and urgent issue for workers in Australia.
The devastation of last summer’s bushfires in Australia highlighted the serious risks posed by climate change to workplace health and safety. While the bushfire crisis brought attention to the risks of air pollution, particularly from smoke, this report shows that heat stress must is the major risk for workers and employers.
The report, Heat Stress and Work in the Era of Climate Change: What We Know, and What We Need to Learn, details the impacts of heat stress, discusses recent research on its physical and mental effects, and it makes recommendations for future areas of inquiry and action. Case studies include building and construction workers, and two groups of outdoor workers working in the City of Sydney — municipal park maintenance workers and bicycle delivery riders.
Researchers identify four key groups of workers as being at high risk of heat stress:
- Workers who labour inside, in environments with poor climate control, or whose work requires them to be exposed to heat and humidity.
- Outdoor workers, especially those who are weather-exposed.
- Workers moving between different climates as part of their work (i.e., moving between extreme heat and cold).
- Workers whose roles expose them to situational extreme heat, such as emergency workers and firefighters.
The report demonstrates the under-preparedness of Australia for the serious health and safety risks of climate change. Workers need to be afforded greater protections to ensure their health and safety are paramount in extreme heat conditions, and what our research shows is that current workplace conditions are woefully inadequate — while climate change will only serve to make conditions worse. Workers say that employers do not want work to stop even when heat stress risk is very high, and that employers prioritise productivity over their health and safety. To protect workers and the wider community, not only must policymakers act to mitigate the impacts of heat stress, but they must also act on the causes of the climate heating itself.
Recommendations include:
- Federal and State Governments must urgently review the management of the current and likely impacts of climate change for workers, and develop national and state-based regulatory frameworks that provide strong protection in relation to heat stress and bushfire smoke.
- Governments and employers must be required to provide adequate resourcing for at-risk workers
- Policymakers should strengthen current laws to ensure workers do not lose income when unable to work due to heat stress.
