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Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/08/unions-europe-worker-protections-heat-stress-climate-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/08/unions-e...
- ydlr 3mo agoWe should implement this in Florida. I wouldn't mind a five month vacation.
- donatj 3mo agoI was about to make the same comment about Minnesota, but I'd only get a three month vacation.
- nkrisc 3mo agoYour workplace in Florida has an interior temperature of 86F? This is about temperature in the workplace, not outside temperatures. Most remotely modern interior spaces in Florida are going to be air conditioned so this is already not a problem in Florida.
- swiftcoder 3mo ago> This is about temperature in the workplace, not outside temperatures According to the article, the 30C threshold is for "more demanding jobs in sectors like agriculture and construction", which generally take place outdoors
- nkrisc 3mo agoPlenty of construction work takes place indoors as well. That said, the linked article isn't very clear on that aspect. It also mentions a minimum temperature of 16C in the UK which outdoors would be quite a lovely day, but rather cold for an office or other indoor workspace.
- sarreph 3mo agoFrom the article, it's for "jobs in sectors like agriculture and construction". Would be interesting to learn about how this kind of work is managed in hotter climates. For office work, a lot of European countries (especially the UK) haven't invested in AC as much as the rest of the world because they haven't needed to. This is especially apparent in housing, where working from home is becoming difficult in these higher temperatures.
- i_am_jl 3mo agoI play games with a guy who does concrete work in Arizona, he mostly works at night.
- RickJWagner 3mo agoI lived for a while in Tucson, Arizona. Days could be brutally hot ( easily over 100 F ), but there was little humidity. My transportation was a motorcycle ( with additional heat radiating off the engine ), so mid often feel a little uncomfortable, but it was definitely livable. Interestingly, homeowners often used evaporative ‘swamp coolers’ instead of AC. A big benefit of low humidity.
- skeledrew 3mo ago> how this kind of work is managed in hotter climates. Natural adaptation.
- bryanlarsen 3mo agoIt's already somewhat implemented in Florida. OSHA requires employers to protect employees from extreme heat. It doesn't explicitly require air conditioning, but air conditioning is standard practice in Florida so not providing it would open up employers to an OSHA complaint. For outdoor work, protection from extreme heat generally implies shade, hydration, frequent breaks, et cetera.
- estearum 3mo agoOSHA? Isn't that a DEI program?
- matwood 3mo agoI lived in the southern US for a long time. Any office I ever worked in would send everyone home if the AC was broken in the summer.
- Mgtyalx 3mo agoDo you have to live & work in un-ac'd buildings? Cos today in my pokey town, my house is 30°C, my local library 28°C the gym is at least 25°C and the outside 31°C at a dew point of 15°C. Its not Florida but its the UK and there’s no relief.
- RetroTechie 3mo agoWhile they're at it, include schools too. Many school buildings have inadequate ventilation or climate control. Sweating in >30°C high-CO2 spaces doesn't improve student's learning.
- zeta_ 3mo agoIn Germany that's already a thing afaik
- rz2k 3mo agoThat's an interesting way to investigate how much public policy surrounding schools is actually focused on student education. I think you'd find that there would be significant fear around crime in an environment that already has a heightened risk of riots. For younger students the debate would shift to burden of additional childcare.
- lrae 3mo agoNot sure about the rioting part, maybe in some places on earth, but I'd say the burden of additional childcare is obviously an issue. So is just missing those hours of education. Which is why perhaps classes should not be suspended in most and less extreme cases, but rather adjusted. And good teachers are already doing that. (And long-term, AC has to be a thing.)
- juujian 3mo agoThat's been a thing for a long time. "Hitzefrei".
- danshipt 3mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- swiftcoder 3mo ago> Under the proposals, employers within the European Union would be legally required to suspend work if temperatures exceeded 30C That's... uh... the entire summer in most of southern Europe? I agree with the general intention, but the thresholds probably need to take into account humidity as well (i.e. be based on wet bulb temperatures), and I don't really see how one can apply a one-size-fits-all policy all the way from Greece to Scandinavia...
- agarsev 3mo agosouthern europeans have had to deal with the northern cultural view that we're lazy, and modern work culture imported from those countries has virtually ended siesta. well, now it's hot over there too. we can be nice and tell them "see?" or we can be mean and have them live with the consequences of their moral positions. Right now I'm leaning a bit to the later, but it might just be the heat getting to me :P
- altairprime 3mo agoI’d lean towards writing an economics masters thesis that demonstrate that climate change will shrink GDP -A% per +/-B degrees/humidity variation from temperate, demonstrate this effect in past versus present data for Greece, modify the basic productivity formula underlying all of economics to include “divergence from temperate conditions”, and then finally show that when run against different world regions parallels, each region with positive (hot/humid) variances from temperate is commonly associated with the “lazy” stereotypes imposed on workers in high-divergence regions by residents of low-divergence regions. But sadly I have to get a job first, so maybe in a couple years.
- purrcat259 3mo ago_laughs in maltese_
- UltraSane 3mo ago30C isn't that bad if the humidity is low and you are in shade.
- softfalcon 3mo agoExcept for a large part of Europe, the relative humidity is quite high. So, they're suffering more than most. I say this as someone who once lived in a desert and is well accustomed to 40-50 C summers.
- joe_mamba 3mo agoHeatwave from a few weeks ago had 70% humidity where I live. It's brutal with no AC to dehumidify.
- UltraSane 3mo ago70% humidity is hell.
- toasty228 3mo agoNow try in the sun behind a truck laying asphalt
- UltraSane 3mo agoSeems cheaper to install AC.
- geraneum 3mo agoIn the farm?
- plextoria 3mo agoTractors come with AC
- tonyedgecombe 3mo agoI expect some people here think we don’t have tractors in Europe.
- estearum 3mo agoAs anyone familiar with farms will tell you: it basically all happens on tractors!
- rconti 3mo agoProbably a good argument for the agreement; puts teeth behind worker safety/comfort.
- i_am_jl 3mo agoGiven that the article specifically calls out a construction union and an agricultural union as two of the unions making this request, I don't think that's a realistic solution to the problem.
- quickthrowman 3mo agoVapor compression refrigeration has been mass produced for a century. Add a reversing valve and you have a heat pump. Europe better get started on installs, it’s not going to cool down.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- Muromec 3mo agoI have a warmtepomp -- it's great, but it is cooling the house, not the air a only gets it to 5 day degrees down. It's mandatory for new houses in Amsterdam I think and there seem to plans to retrofit old buildings. It helps that we also produce it, but the usual types tried to sabotage that too last time.
- quickthrowman 3mo agoAs a native English speaker, I love how some Dutch terms are clearly understandable to me without knowing Dutch, “warmtepomp” is a wonderful word :)
- Muromec 3mo agoDutch is the English that makes sense (not a native speaker of either).
- ww520 3mo agoI have a heat pump based water heater installed in the garage. One side benefit is the garage got cooled down. It used to be that the garage got very hot during hot days. Now it’s cool.
- lrae 3mo agoWhat makes you think that this isn't happening? China ramps up production & shipping to Europe [1] and a quick glance at Google Trends for Germany, UK and France AC install searches are up 5x from last year, and last year was already double or more of the previous years. 1: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202607/1364856.shtml https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202607/1364856.shtml
- trumbitta2 3mo agoThat's not going to work in the South. Demand adapted buildings, housing, and AC where applicable.
- raverbashing 3mo agoMost places in the south already have AC And the ones that don't have it, oh well, too bad :)
- sergiosgc 3mo agoRead the article. This applies to outdoor jobs only.
- raverbashing 3mo agoYes, outdoor work should already have had this!
- embedding-shape 3mo agoIt's specifically for "jobs in sectors like agriculture and construction", not sure better buildings will help the workers out on fields and construction sites much. Although one temperature threshold probably don't make much sense, a strict 30C across the entire continent would mean massively different things in different countries, in many countries that mean basically the entire summer off, every year.
- colechristensen 3mo agoIt matters when the heat stress continues when you're not at work. You can tolerate a lot more if your body gets actual breaks from the heat.
- altairprime 3mo agoThis would be wet bulb, not dry bulb: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48861424 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48861424
- mamonster 3mo ago>The union said employers should take steps to cool down workplaces once temperatures exceed 24C, with workers able to stop working if temperatures reach 30C, or 27C for those doing manual labour or working outdoors. Geneva already has a version of this. You have to stop outside work at 13h00 unless it's necessary, in which case you have to take 45min breaks for every 15 minutes of work. However the threshold isn't 27C but rather like 32C (from what I understand)
- em-bee 3mo agotake 45min breaks for every 15 minutes of work i guess you meant the reverse?
- richwater 3mo ago[flagged]
- toasty228 3mo agoLmao, go work in construction a single day when it's 30c in the shade and come back to enlight us
- antisthenes 3mo agoHave you ever tried playing a sport in 32C and high humidity? It's 45 min break.
- mamonster 3mo agoNo, I literally meant that. It's an alternative to not working at all.
- em-bee 3mo agois it really an alternative? i'd rather do a 4 hour night shift without breaks than working 8 hours like this in the heat. what am i supposed to do with a 45 minute break? if i am a bricklayer or example, i'd still be stuck on a badly cooled construction site. seems totally not worth it to me. even worse considering that normally breaks are not paid. if we assume that this is the middle of the day, so i work 2 hours normally, then 4 hours with 45 minute breaks and then another 2 hours normally, i might as well just work 2.5hours normally, take a 3 hour break and then work another 2.5 hours normally. so no, really, i don't see any benefit in that arrangement.
- josefritzishere 3mo agoAnything above 86 F? That's the whole summer. I see this as a negotiating position. They'll probably agree on something closer to 33 C (~90F). They have to. If they do nothing people will literally die. Climate change has consequences.
- petcat 3mo agoI think this whole heat wave crisis has been shocking to the rest of the world to see that apparently Europeans refuse to install AC even in new-build homes and it is causing enormous numbers of deaths. What is the reason for this? Is it just because it's expensive and energy costs are so high? It seems like a basic safety requirement that they are refusing to acknowledge and are now apparently just refusing to go to work completely when it gets hot outside.
- colechristensen 3mo agoCollective cultural delusion? Koreans think leaving a fan on while you're sleeping is deadly... people are weird.
- jltsiren 3mo agoThings are already much better than they used to be. The 2003 heatwave killed ~70k. This year's heatwave was worse, but the number of deaths probably didn't go much beyond 20k.
- 4gotunameagain 3mo agoWe also recently had COVID to cull the herd. I imagine many people are missing from the stats because of it.
- bryanlarsen 3mo agoEven in new build homes? IIUC, many people in Europe were taking advantage of the incentives to install heat pumps as a back door mechanism to install A/C. After all a heat pump is essentially just A/C with a reverser switch. But that only works in homes with forced air heating. Most of Europe doesn't use forced air heating. You can replace a boiler with a heat pump, but if you do you don't magically get A/C too. In 2026 it seems silly to do new builds in a cold climate with anything but a forced air heat pump.
- vrganj 3mo agoIt also works in homes with wall heating. My parents now have wall cooling, which is much nicer than any forced air AC.
- deadbabe 3mo agoTurns out in the 21st century the technology that will boost worker productivity in Europe will not be AI, it will be AC.
- zarzavat 3mo agoI wish that society can learn about and apply the concept of a wet bulb temperature. A dry bulb temperature of 30C contains little information regarding safety. Humans are wet and we cool ourselves with evaporation.
- lrae 3mo ago> Unions want enforceable workplace thermal limits, based on the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/08/unions-europe-worker-protections-heat-stress-climate-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/08/unions-e... The submission just doesn't include it, but that seems to be the goal to apply that concept :)
- Al-Khwarizmi 3mo agoFirst, weather services would need to report it. None of the ones I've seen do. Most don't even report feels-like temperature, they just report plain temperature... in my city (often windy and humid) it's all but useless, you can need a jacket with 21ºC one day and be comfortable without it with 16ºC the next.
- orwin 3mo agoMy union is pushing for this, >28 WBGT and people can get out of work.
- lrae 3mo ago(Slightly) better article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/08/unions-europe-worker-protections-heat-stress-climate-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/08/unions-e... OP's submission seems very UK / TUC centric, also doesn't include something many here are bringing up, that they indeed plan to base it on the wet bulb temperature.
- dang 3mo agoThanks! I've added that link to the toptext.
- robocat 3mo ago> they indeed plan to base it on the wet bulb temperature WBGT != wet bulb : There's some nasty confusing terms here - and the Grauniad has also got the link wrong - their reporting has not just gotten more biased it has gotten much worse. WetBulbGlobeTemp = 0.7WetBulbTemp + 0.2DryTemp + 0.1*BlackPaintTemp In the shade with still air the WBGT approaches the actual temperature as humidity rises. If sunny and humid it can be above the actual temperature. For low-humidity moving air the WBGT might be noticeably cooler on a hot day. At least that's the best summary I can give from the quick skim I looked at. It's a crappy confusing 50s model supposed to approximate how warm it feels - needs a local meter to test - see image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_globe_temperature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_globe_temperature I find dry bulb temperature along with humidity are better when I travel, because they are more predictable based on historical data and you get to know what matters and make choices according to context. And more helpful in cool climates where damp cool days are nasty.
- EcommerceFlow 3mo ago99.9% of all mass in the solar system is the Sun, a giant nuclear reactor. No one should ever accept energy conservation.
- throwpoaster 3mo agoWith or without AC?
- IveSeenItAll 3mo ago[flagged]
- iso1631 3mo agoThe downvoting would be because of your claims that europeans have outlawed air conditioning
- IveSeenItAll 3mo agoNo, I'm pretty sure that's not it... (and I say that knowing that sarcasm is both dead and pretty hard to detect online, at the same time, no less)
- kbelder 3mo agoNo, there were plenty of other reasons as well. I didn't downvote, but I wanted to at the second word.
- IveSeenItAll 3mo agoOh, come on, just press that down arrow! It might just get me to the -5 required to be permanently muted on this hellsite, and it might just bring you closer to your dream of finally working in Silicon Valley!
- HeavyStorm 3mo agoI find this funny. Temps are always above 30C here during summer.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- firesteelrain 3mo agoUS Military developed the wet bulb index in the 1950s for this purpose and it’s still used today.
- BoingBoomTschak 3mo agoLiving in the south of France outside tourist havens (I had one when renting near St-Tropez), the current situation is that serious AC is considered something for the rich. Not because AC itself is particularly expensive, but because almost no rental apartment has it because installing AC during the construction is basically forbidden due to green laws (RT 2012) so you need to own. And owning something decent not in the damn city itself is expensive as fuck these days.
- orwin 3mo agoRT2012 is the reason my uncle installed a reversible heatpump to replace the cheap electric radiator in the house he renovated, so i'm not sure it's really forbidden. But yes, RT2012 make building new houses more expensive, and you don't want to add a AC unit to that. Especially since most areas expressly forbid visible heatpump from the streets, so you have the added cost of having to hide them (In France, we basically have a big HoA in each city, it's called PLU and the mayor get to choose the color scheme and maximum height of your house, the maximum height of your trees and if you get to have AC or not).
- skeledrew 3mo agoIt's almost constantly above 30°C in the day where I'm at. Instant permanent vacation.
- kyriakos 3mo agoIn Cyprus that means no work for more than half a year.
- vicnov 3mo agoHow countries with wet/hot climate that achieved economic success have solved it? Because my cynical mind tells me that the only thing it will result in is 1. Extremely low productivity 2. Hiring outside of unions. Union will push for “union only jobs” and that’s going to result in even less productivity OR robotization of agriculture and construction.
- pvaldes 3mo agoHiring workers naturally adapted to the work conditions can help. Also providing a constant supply of water bottles
- laughing_man 3mo ago30 isn't even that hot. I hope this is just their opening bid.
- pvaldes 3mo agoTrees and climbers are the best AC.
- pvaldes 3mo agoI heard about a man that was finishing his work working in a greenhouse. He felt ill and dizzy and tried to go home. Sadly the car was parked in the sun. He entered in the car, fainted and died by heat stroke.
- maxglute 3mo agoAre military and japanese only ones working on active cooling workwear?
- sacravenger 3mo ago[flagged]