Green Party MP Hannah Spencer has introduced a bill in parliament that would pave the way for a maximum workplace temperature
Nurses have ended up fainting in swelteringly hot hospital wards condemned as “not fit for humans”, an investigation claims.
Meanwhile, paramedics have described enduring 12-hour shifts in scorching ambulances without air conditioning. Teachers have also reported trying to get pupils to engage in temperatures in excess of 30°C in classrooms.
The findings from an investigation by the Green Party are among a host of examples in which people have battled to do their jobs in punishingly hot conditions.
Campaigners and unions have slammed the fact the UK has health and safety guidance on minimum workplace temperatures, but nothing for maximums. It comes as Britain has suffered five heatwaves during a record-breaking summer which has seen millions of workers struggle through increasingly extreme summer heat.
Eleven of Britain’s biggest trade unions – including Labour-affiliated Unite, Unison, GMB and USDAW – are calling for a legal maximum workplace temperature.
Hannah Spencer, the Green Party MP for Gorton and Denton, has written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham calling on him to back her Maximum Workplace Temperature Bill, which is due for second reading in the House of Commons on October 16. She introduced the Bill in July to establish an independent body to make recommendations to government on maximum workplace temperatures.
The Royal College of Nursing revealed how, during heatwaves, members have collapsed on shift, and patients are “suffering” in facilities “not fit for humans”. Scores of calls to its advice line during this year’s record-breaking summer have revealed hospital wards, care homes and offices are regularly topping 30°C. The RCN says the responsibility must be on employers to implement the necessary mitigations – such as air conditioning and proper ventilation – rather than allow staff and patients to continue suffering in unsafe and unhealthy environments.
Paramedics have spoken of “unbearable” shifts and crews being sent out in ambulances in stifling heat with faulty or no air conditioning, and often with limited access to drinking water or toilet facilities.
An ambulance medical technician in Birmingham told Unison: “Working in the heat has been awful. It’s vile. It’s also ridiculously busy when it’s hot. We have one uniform, whether it’s minus 10 or plus 30 degrees. You’re sweating even when you’re just driving.” Another said: “Twelve-hour shifts are exhausting in the heat. Doing CPR for 40 minutes in the heat is 10 times harder. Then you simply move onto the next job. I could have cried during my last shift. I often think, I can’t do this again.”
The lack of protection against working in extreme conditions is also an issue for everyone from train drivers and postal workers, to the police, through to civil servants in buildings with little or no air conditioning.
Finn Brennan, a full-time organiser at train drivers’ union Aslef on the London Underground, said: “Spending eight hours a day in a metal box deep underground is no fun at any time of the year, but it is especially challenging in such high temperatures. While modern Tube trains, like those on the Metropolitan and Circle lines, do have air cooling systems, older Tube train stock on the Bakerloo and Central lines get really uncomfortable for passengers and staff.”
Hannah Spencer, who worked as a plumber before being elected as an MP, said:“This investigation confirms what so many workers saw and felt during a record breaking summer of extreme heat. Shocking conditions, and a government missing in action, without the urgent measures the moment demanded. We cannot wait for another summer to act – the time to step up and protect workers is now.”