Extreme Heat Spurs New Laws Aimed at Protecting Workers Worldwide

For years, researchers have raised the alarm about the dangers of extreme heat in the workplace. Now, as more workers get sick — and sometimes die — from increasingly intense and frequent heat waves, labor laws are barely keeping up with the new hazards of climate change.

This summer it was so hot in southern Europe, where temperatures passed 115 degrees Fahrenheit, that local governments in many areas of Greece, Italy and Spain ordered outdoor work to stop in the afternoons for several weeks.

Japan, reeling from one of its worst heat waves on record, required employers to protect workers from heat stroke risks or face $3,400 fines.

In Singapore, employers must install sensors to measure heat and humidity levels every hour at large outdoor work sites, and provide relief accordingly.

In the United States, even as a national heat standard is yet to be finalized, local governments are enacting local measures. Boston passed a law this summer that required all city projects to have a “heat illness prevention plan” that trains work crews to spot heat illness and guarantee water and shade breaks.

Most of these measures are nascent and uneven. Critics say they are poorly enforced. They often collide with the needs of gig workers, who say they need to work no matter how hot it is.

But the fact that they’re happening at all underscores the scale and severity of the problem. Worldwide, an estimated 2.4 billion people are exposed to heat stress at work, according to a recent report published the World Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organization.

“Governments are beginning to accept that extreme heat is now a predictable, recurring occupational risk that requires structured regulation and enforcement, not just temporary crisis management,” said Andreas Flouris, a professor at University of Thessaly in Greece and an expert on occupational heat strain.

The report estimated that exposure to extreme heat leads to occupational illnesses among nearly 23 million workers a year, including kidney damage, dehydration and heatstroke, “all of which hinder long-term health and economic security,” it said. Roughly 19,000 workers die every year in heat-related injuries and illnesses, the report estimated.

In Bangladesh, for instance, garment workers told researchers with Climate Rights International, an advocacy group, that the heat becomes so intense inside their factories that some of them faint, or they cut their work hours short and lose a portion of their earnings. The World Health Organization has urged government authorities and employers to enact heat policies tailored to specific locations and industries.

In some places, workers are taking matters into their own hands. In India, a union of women who are self-employed as seamstresses or vegetable vendors offers low cost insurance that generates a small payment when temperatures spike to dangerous levels.

In the United States, only seven states — California, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — have heat-protection standards for workers. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is in the process of finalizing heat standards. And a handful of states, including Texas and Florida, prohibit local governments from passing laws that would mandate rest and water breaks.

Other countries are taking slightly different approaches.

Older workers face higher risks in Japan

Wander around Tokyo for a day and you’ll see delivery workers wearing wristbands that track their core body temperature, warn them of heatstroke symptoms and remind them to drink something. Yamato Transport, the country’s largest package delivery service, rolled out the wristbands to 2,500 workers as a pilot project last year, as Japan witnessed its hottest year on record and workers complained about threats to their health.

The 2024 heat wave prompted the government to tighten occupational health regulations. Under the new rules, employers must ensure that workers have cooling measures when the wet-bulb globe temperature, a metric based on heat and humidity, reaches 28 degrees Celsius (82 Fahrenheit). Failure to do so can result in a fine of 500,000 yen, or $3,400, or even a prison term.

It was after these new rules came into effect that Yamato also installed sensors to keep track of the heat index at all its offices and warehouses. It also expanded the use of cooling vests, with fans hooked to their sides, to 75,000 workers around the country.

Not everyone welcomes the extra gear. A delivery worker in Tokyo, Masami Tabata, said he refused to use the vest. “I don’t like to be bothered by the weight as I have to move around a lot,” he said.

Vests and wristbands are among several accessories that Japanese companies are offering outdoor workers, from towels that turn cold when they’re soaked in water to shirts that protect against the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Yamato said it has increased its budget for heat-safety measures, although it declined to say by how much. Some companies are offering bonuses for working on hot days.

Japan’s occupational heat risks are exacerbated by demography. The country has an aging population. The median age is over 48. Older workers can be far more vulnerable to heat.

Stopping work in southern Europe

As heat waves become more frequent and last longer, work stoppages are no longer “exceptional emergency measures,” Mr. Flouris said. Government authorities are under growing pressure to set stricter rules.

Spanish law now says that when the National Weather Service issues a red or orange heat alert, signifying high levels of risk, outdoor work should be shortened or suspended. But even that rule, issued in 2023, wasn’t enough this summer, when temperatures pushed well past 100 degrees Fahrenheit for several days. In Barcelona in June, a street cleaner named Montse Aguilar collapsed and died. The city quickly tightened the rules. Her death remains under investigation.

In Greece, the labor department ordered work stoppages in the afternoons in several regions during successive heat waves this summer, when temperatures soared above 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit).

Likewise, several regions of Italy banned outdoor work in afternoons for much of the summer. It was doubly punishing to delivery workers, for whom no outdoor work meant no pay.

An analysis by Allianz Research found that this summer’s heat waves could slow economic growth by half a percentage across Europe. Scientists looked at heat deaths in just 12 cities this summer and concluded that said climate change tripled the number of casualties.

Risk versus migrant rights in Singapore

When the wet bulb globe temperature reaches a threshold of 31 degrees, the law mandates hourly water breaks. At 32 degrees, it mandates a minimum of 10 minute rest breaks each hour and at 33 degrees, a minimum of 15 minute breaks. There’s also a suggestion to “reschedule outdoor physical work to cooler parts of the day, where feasible.”

Sensors are easy to put up. The problem is that Singapore’s outdoor workers are mainly temporary migrants. They usually come from poorer countries in South Asia, and they work on temporary contracts with salaries that their families rely on back home.

When labor advocates surveyed workers earlier this year, they found a reluctance to speak out about health risks, pressures to meet deadlines, and a lack of enforcement. Labor advocates say heat stress remains largely underreported. “Many employers feel a sense of impunity,” said Alex Au, vice president of a Singapore-based advocacy group, Transient Workers Count Too. “Migrant workers burdened by debt and at the mercy of employers for job security feel totally powerless in speaking up.”

Workers surveyed by his group rarely reported of a work stoppage on exceptionally hot days. Some said there were no shaded rest areas.

One safety supervisor, a Bangladeshi migrant Kabir Hossain Bhuiyan, said that when temperatures spiked to 34 degrees Celsius earlier this year, many workers had to take sick days. Employers have by and large become more careful about water and rest breaks since the law’s passage, but there are still some bosses who have to be badgered by their employees to provide the required water and rest breaks.

Government inspectors found that nearly a third of the 70 sites they checked last year were not complying with the law.

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey contributed reporting from New York and Toh Ee Ming contributed reporting from Singapore.