In my article in the Journal of Industrial Relations, in a volume acknowledging the journal’s 65th year, I examine the growing impacts of climate change on work health and safety (WHS) and argue that Australia is poorly prepared to protect workers from these risks. This is despite clear international warnings and guidance, and an increasing focus on the problem by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO has identified climate change as an urgent WHS priority which is already worsening working conditions globally, particularly through rising temperatures and heatwaves, but also via air pollution, extreme weather events, vector-borne diseases and solar ultraviolet radiation. Workers are especially vulnerable to climate impacts because of the need to maintain productivity, unequal power relations at work, and the prevalence of insecure and precarious employment. These pressures can prevent workers from slowing work, taking breaks, or refusing unsafe tasks.
The article reviews two major ILO reports — the April 2024 Ensuring Safety and Health at Work in a Changing Climate report, and the July 2024 Heat at Work: Implications for Safety and Health. A Global Review of the Science, Policy and Practice. The April report identifies six key climate-related WHS risks and argue that effective adaptation requires new regulations, coordinated planning across labour, health and climate agencies, strong social dialogue, and a focus on vulnerable workers. The July report focuses more particularly on high heat, and current International best practice. Against this benchmark, the article finds Australia’s response lacking. While climate change is briefly acknowledged in recent Commonwealth WHS, climate change and health strategies, considerations are fragmented, underdeveloped and largely absent from concrete planning. Safe Work Australia has not undertaken systematic work on climate-related WHS risks, and no clear targets or regulatory reforms have been established.
The article argues that this policy inertia reflects Australia’s history of climate delay, a broader adaptation impasse shaped by political economy constraints, and the limited prioritisation of climate-related WHS by unions to date. I conclude that relying on existing WHS frameworks is inadequate in a warming climate, and that protecting workers will require coordinated national leadership, strengthened regulation, adequate resourcing of essential services, and a more labour-centred approach that confronts power, inequality and profit pressures shaping workplace safety under climate change.
Image: Cover of the ILO’s April 2024 Ensuring Safety and Health at Work in a Changing Climate report.
