2023-07-31 16:57:44
Posted Jul 31, 2023, 6:57 PM
The summer of 2022 had experienced 33 days of heat wave, a record. And July 2023 is on track to become the hottest month on record globally. Faced with global warming, the CGT believes that labor law must adapt. The union wants the law to include a maximum threshold “of temperature beyond which a worker cannot occupy his position”, because, according to him, “workers will increasingly have to face extreme conditions”.
The Labor Code does not provide for a temperature above which an employee can leave his post. “In law, the hardship thresholds are often high [en l’occurrence 900 heures par an à une température au moins égale à 30 °C, NDLR]. But it is obvious that above a certain temperature, work becomes impossible”, explains lawyer Camille-Frédéric Pradel, who believes that stopping work in the event of high temperatures would be “common sense”. .
Obligations of the employer
The National Institute for Research and Security (INRS) also highlights the consequences on organisms strong heat: “beyond […] 28°C, for work requiring physical activity, the heat can constitute a risk for employees. »
A lever can be used by employees in the event of “serious and imminent danger”: the right of withdrawal. “It is a right that has been designed more to deal with industrial risks, explosions. Even if I have never seen its use in the event of strong heat, its use is possible”, estimates Camille-Frédéric Pradel.
Occupational medicine may, moreover, impose preventive measures on a category of employees in the event of risks to their health. While the employer has the obligation to ensure “the physical and mental health of the workers” and to allow them access to drinking water, fresh air and for outdoor work, to a space “protected against atmospheric conditions”.
Some professional sectors are particularly exposed to extreme heat, such as construction, agricultural work or catering. And the hottest hours cannot always be avoided, especially in restaurants and cafes. The Ministry of Labor, in an instruction of June 13, imposed on employers, in the event of a department going through red vigilance, to carry out “daily risk assessments” and to operate, if necessary, ” adjustments in the organization of work”, or even a “stoppage of work”.
Despite everything, “the passage in red vigilance does not mean the automatic suspension of work”, one specifies at the Ministry of Labor. Only a prefectural decree can order such a decision.
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