As Britain endures an intense heatwave, a campaign is pushing for new protections for people at work, arguing that current rules leave too many exposed to dangerous conditions. Organisers are calling for a legal maximum workplace temperature and are urging workers across the country to take part in what they describe as a heat strike this week, under the slogan that they are cooler together.
At the centre of the demand is a specific figure. The campaign is calling for a maximum workplace temperature of 30 degrees, a threshold above which, in their view, it should not be acceptable to expect people to keep working as normal. The proposal would set a clear limit where, at present, there is no fixed legal ceiling on how hot a workplace can become.
Organisers frame the issue as part of a wider failure to adapt. They argue that the UK is built for a climate that no longer exists, and accuse the government of being, in their words, missing in action, with no plan to deal with the kind of extreme heat now being recorded. For them, the heatwave is a sign that workplace rules need to catch up with a changing climate.
To make their case, the campaigners point to accounts they say they have gathered from workers. They describe meeting people the night before, hearing from teachers whose colleagues had fainted, and from bakers working in factories that, according to the campaign, went over 40 degrees during the heat. These testimonies are being used to argue that the risks are already very real.
The demand has picked up organised support. According to the campaign, the Fire Brigades Union has backed the call for a maximum workplace temperature. At the same time, organisers are keen to stress that the action is not intended to halt vital services, saying that essential emergency workers would continue to work even as others take part in the protest.
The campaigners acknowledge that the picture is not the same everywhere. They note that someone in an air-conditioned office in central London might actually be safer at work than at home, but insist the issue is about workplaces up and down the country, not just the capital. The push comes as red heat health alerts warn of a risk to life during the current spell of extreme temperatures.