Employers certainly don’t have it easy. Even on days when temperatures soar to unusually high levels, they’re responsible for ensuring that employees not only stay properly hydrated, but also work in optimal climate conditions.
A particularly hot day is defined as one where the air temperature in the shade exceeds 30 degrees Celsius. Occupational health and safety and working on warm days have their own specific requirements, which are addressed in the Decree of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic No. 99/2016 Coll. on details regarding the protection of health from heat and cold stress at work.
But what does adequate fluid intake actually mean?
It refers to the amount of fluids an employee should drink during working hours to stay properly hydrated.
However, staying hydrated also means that employees must have access to safe drinking water – typically from a tap.
So don’t expect your employer to provide bottled table or mineral water.
In addition to proper hydration, employers should also ensure a sufficient supply of fresh air during hot weather. This should take into account the physical demands of the job and the type of work being performed — for example, through ventilation using fans, air handling units, or air conditioning systems. However, it’s important that these measures don’t expose employees to uncomfortable draughts or cause thermal discomfort.
There are also guidelines for the use of air conditioning, though applying them is often up to the employees themselves. The air conditioning should be set so that the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor air is no more than 7 degrees Celsius.
The employer should also provide shading against the penetration of direct sunlight through windows by means of blinds or shutters, may adjust working hours by shifting to earlier morning hours, appropriate work clothing, reducing the intensity of work performance or reducing working hours.
When we start talking about temperatures in the workplace, we need to know that all types of work are classified into classes, with each class of work having its own specific recommendations for the minimum, maximum, recommended and permissible temperatures in which the work is to be carried out.
Class of work 1a
Represents routine clerical work; it is a sedentary job with minimal physical activity such as typing on a computer, sorting small items, etc.
Optimum temperature
Permissible temperature
Working class 1 b
Involves mainly driving a passenger motor vehicle, standing work occasionally associated with slow walking on a flat floor carrying light loads (salesmen, assemblers, machining small parts, etc.).
Optimum temperature
Permissible temperature
Working class 1 c
Represents sitting work with permanent use of both hands, arms and legs (food production work, mechanics’ work, machining and assembly of medium-heavy parts) as well as standing work with permanent use of both hands, arms and legs associated with carrying loads of up to 10 kg (work as a salesperson in high customer traffic, etc.).
Optimum temperature
Permissible temperature
Work class 2
Is standing work with arms and shoulders, work with arms and legs, work with arms and trunk (work with pneumatic hammer, vehicle assembly, handling medium loads up to 15 kg associated with occasional carrying, work in construction – plastering, etc., gardening work, manual cleaning of large areas, cleaning windows), walking at a speed of 3.5 to 5.5 km/h.
Optimum temperature
Permissible temperature
Labour class 3
Involves intensive arm and trunk work (handling heavy loads up to 25 kg, shovel work, chainsaw work, hand mowing, digging), pushing or pulling hand trucks with heavy loads, laying concrete blocks, walking at speeds of 5.5 to 7.0 km/h.
Optimum temperature
Not specified
Permissible temperature
Labour class 4
Is very intense activity at a fast to maximum pace (working with an axe, intense shovel or excavation work, hand forging large pieces, transporting heavy loads up to 50 kg, walking up stairs, up a ramp or climbing a ladder), fast walking more than 7.0 km/h, running.
Optimum temperature
Permissible temperature
If optimum conditions cannot be ensured and employees work more than 4 hours per shift, the employer shall provide acceptable microclimatic conditions. However, this is not without exception.
The employer shall not be obliged to ensure permissible microclimatic conditions in workplaces requiring special thermal conditions or in workplaces where the heat load from technological processes cannot be eliminated by technical means and on exceptionally warm days, i.e. days when the outside temperature is above 30°C.
In such cases, the employer must adjust the working time accordingly, i.e. e.g. shorten the working day or divide it into several parts. You can find more interesting articles on important occupational health and safety topics on the 3MON blog.
