Article content
Crazy heat has struck our territory. Everyone would like to spend these days by the water,, but most people have to cope with these high temperatures at work.
We’ll tell you what you’re entitled to under these conditions
August is starting truly with extreme temperatures, today, according to meteorologists, they are expected to rise up to 37 ° C. In such conditions it’s harder to concentrate at work; for some people it is even a matter of health, so the employer should, to minimize the risk, ensure appropriate conditions.
The Labour Code deals with workplace safety in relation to heat only very marginally. “The employer is obliged to create a safe and health‑non‑threatening working environment and working conditions by appropriate organization of safety and health protection at work and by taking measures to prevent risks,” states the Labour Code. The employer is therefore obliged to make changes if heat endangers your health, but it does not specify the working conditions in more detail.
More detailed conditions are laid down by Government Regulation No. 361/2007 Coll. and later amendments, according to which in difficult conditions, when the outside temperature rises above 30 ° C, the employer is obliged, for example, to ensure an adequate supply of fluids; some employees are entitled to so‑called protective beverages. The regulations also set the temperature to which air conditioning at the workplace must be set.
Ventilation and air conditioning
At the workplace, sufficient air ventilation must be ensured to protect health by natural, forced or combined ventilation. The regulation for natural ventilation specifies the amount of air that must be exchanged.
In the case of air conditioning the government regulation specifies the exact temperature the workplace must have. The resulting temperature is determined by the class of work a person performs. For work performed predominantly sitting the temperature should be set to 24,5, increasing with a deviation dependent on the required environmental quality, but at most by + 2,5 and – 2 degrees. In the case of work involving light manual labour it is then 23 ° C
Fluids and protective beverages
The government regulation states that for physically demanding work an employee is entitled to so‑called protective beverages. In the case of office work this means weakly mineralized water, so employees must be given access to drinking water. In the case physically demanding work, however, the employer must offer people moderately mineralized water.
“The protective beverage must be safe for health and must not contain more than 6.5 weight percent sugar; it may, however, contain substances that increase the organism’s resistance. The amount of alcohol in it must not exceed 1 percent by weight; the protective beverage for a juvenile employee, however, must not contain alcohol. The protective beverage protecting against heat strain is provided in an amount corresponding to at least 70% of the loss of fluids and minerals by sweating and breathing during an eight‑hour shift,” the government regulation states.
Work rotation and safety break
In the event that the above‑mentioned sufficient ventilation and relatively low temperature cannot be ensured at the workplace, the employer is obliged to implement a regime of work rotation and safety breaks.
