The Local Administration Workers’ Union (STAL) emphasises the hazards workers face in outdoor settings due to heat exposure and calls for measures to preserve their health.
In a statement, the Local Administration Workers’ Union (STAL) highlights that the climate has worsened in recent years, with periods of extreme heat becoming more frequent and prolonged, which has severe impacts on health, “making work even more difficult and aggravating the safety risks for thousands of workers”.
The Union warns that Local Government workers – made up of local authorities, services, and public and private companies, and the diversity of services it provides – who carry out their activity outdoors, in construction sites, or warehouses, among other facilities, are especially susceptible to exposure to high temperatures or direct sun exposure.
To this extent, STAL challenges the “local authorities, municipal companies and concessionaires to, in conjunction with the Occupational Health and Safety Services (OSH), find organisational solutions and collective and individual protection measures that safeguard workers’ health”.
Therefore, among other necessary measures, the union asks employers to establish heat prevention plans, which may be based on the yellow alerts issued by the Civil Defense.
They also ask for fresh drinking water to be made available in the workplace, air conditioning equipment to be safeguarded, and exposure to direct sunlight to be limited.
The essential measures include setting up rest areas with air conditioning or shade, modifying work processes, restricting work to air-conditioned vehicles during the hottest hours, implementing slower work speeds and longer recovery periods, and including sunscreen as part of the required Personal Protective Equipment.
STAL stresses that the “thermal risk, caused by exposure to high temperatures, is well known and has serious consequences: heatstroke, exhaustion, muscle tears, fainting, cramps, skin rashes and swelling”.
The union says it has alerted several entities to this situation.
“The law does not establish a temperature above which workers need to stop working, but there are rules and guidelines that need to be respected, and employers are obliged to ensure workers’ health in their service. They cannot expose them to occupational risks, such as heat and have an obligation to organise services and adopt measures that promote Safety and Health at Work”, says STAL.
