Unions demand EU temperature limits as heat hits productivity
Trade unions are calling for binding EU temperature limits after a 42 percent rise in heat-related workplace fatalities exposed a regulatory gap that threatens worker safety and business continuity.
A heatwave sweeping across Europe has triggered demands from trade unions and health experts for the bloc to introduce binding rules protecting workers from extreme temperatures. Several member states have issued heat alerts as unusually high temperatures marked the start of summer.
The economic and human cost of rising temperatures is becoming impossible to ignore. At 32°C, productivity drops by 40 percent. Meanwhile, heat-related workplace fatalities in the EU have increased by 42 percent since 2000. The World Health Organization noted that across the EU and associated countries, heat claimed more than 200,000 lives in the last four years alone. "Most of these deaths were entirely preventable," the organization stated.
Under current EU legislation, employers are required to assess workplace risks. However, unlike physical hazards such as noise decibels or chemical exposure limits, there is no EU-wide maximum legal working temperature. This regulatory gap leaves businesses without clear compliance standards and workers vulnerable as climate change makes extreme heat a persistent occupational hazard.
A report due in the coming days from the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) argues for a shift from reactive emergency responses to standard preventive measures. "We want to protect workers in their daily lives," said ETUI researcher and report coauthor Marouane Laabbas-el-Guennouni. "We wanted to translate scientific evidence into practicality," he added, noting that prevention ensures the continuity of work.
Trade unions favor new EU-level rules that would guide national legislation. This approach respects that labor policy remains primarily a national competence while establishing baseline obligations across the bloc. There appears to be broad recognition of the problem. "All three stakeholders: the governments, the employers and the workers agreed that the heat is an issue that needs to be addressed," said Andreas D. Flouris, a physiology professor at the University of Thessaly and coauthor of the report.
“Our role as a trade union federation is to make clear that there are problems, emergencies that have to be tackled, and that this is one of them,” said Ivan Ivanov, political secretary at the European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture (EFFAT). For European businesses, failing to establish clear temperature standards risks significant operational disruptions as heatwaves grow more frequent and intense.
