Spanish authorities are investigating the death of a street sweeper who collapsed this week in the intense heat wave gripping Europe. Italy has banned outdoor work during the hottest hours. Schools in France have been shuttered. Even the top of the Eiffel Tower is closed.
As Europe puts its citizens on alert for record temperatures, the increasing frequency of extreme heat is raising an urgent question: How hot is too hot to work?
The French government issued a directive Tuesday strengthening rules for businesses to keep employees cool, as officials warned that working in extreme heat “can increase the risk of workplace accidents, including serious or fatal ones.”
Under the rules, French businesses must ensure they are lowering heat risk for all workers. In offices, that means modifying work spaces near sunny windows or providing more ventilation and water. People toiling in construction, farming and other outdoor activities have the right to demand shorter work hours and heat-protective equipment.
But on a continent where air conditioning is more of an exception than a rule, the challenges are huge and come with an economic toll. In addition to adapting the workplace to heat, companies are reporting a decline in business as consumers and tourists stay out of stores that are not cooled.
The stretched electricity grid is breaking down more frequently, halting train service and even cutting off lighting in stores. On Wednesday, parts of Germany’s Deutsche Bahn train system shut down because the high heat endangered the workers maintaining the tracks.
And with heat waves and droughts striking earlier in the summer and with greater intensity each year, trade unions are warning that labor rules cannot keep up with what the United Nations this week called a new normal for Europe.
“It is clear for all to see in our daily lives that the climate is changing,” Esther Lynch, the general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, said in a statement. “We urgently need our laws to keep up if we’re going to avoid countless more avoidable deaths every summer.”
The trade union called on Brussels to toughen E.U. labor standards, after a 51-year-old woman collapsed at her home on Saturday in Barcelona after working as street cleaner. Spanish media reported that the woman sent text messages to a friend hours earlier reporting pains in her arms, chest and neck as she swept a street by the Barcelona Cathedral in heat that neared 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
In Italy, trade unions pointed to the risks of working outdoors in the stifling heat after a construction worker died Monday near Bologna. In a recent report from France’s Economic, Social and Environmental Council, 40 percent of construction and transportation workers said they were affected by the consequences of global warming.
Europe’s farmers, garbage collectors and even outdoor performers are also grappling with the heat wave. Farmers in France warned of the possibility of field fires from scorching temperatures and have moved shifts to the evening. About 1,400 schools in France were closed for several days.
Heat-related workplace fatalities in Europe have jumped 42 percent since 2000, according to the International Labor Organization. The European Trade Union Confederation said it would press European Union leaders to require businesses to let employees stop working when temperatures in their workplace are deemed dangerous.
The high temperatures are also hurting businesses. Greggs, a British bakery chain, reported sales slumped in June “as very high temperatures affected the U.K., increasing demand for cold drinks but reducing our overall footfall.”
At the Westfield mall in Les Halles, the largest shopping mall in Paris, electricity abruptly cut out on Tuesday afternoon because of a grid overload, casting stores into darkness for several hours and cutting off air conditioning for about a third of the movie theaters in the complex.
Moviegoers waited in line for refunds in cinemas where air conditioning was not working or tried to switch to ones that were cool. Salespeople at stores tried to help customers shop by the light of cellphones. The line for an indoor pool at the mall stretched for a block.
As heat waves grow more intense, productivity will also be hit, economists say. According to the International Labor Organization, heat stress will reduce potential working hours around the globe by 2.2 percent, the equivalent of cutting 80 million full-time jobs.
The European economy could lose 0.5 percentage points of growth this year because of the heat waves, the credit insurance subsidiary of the German insurer Allianz said in a report this week.
“Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme temperatures, making heat waves, droughts and forest fires the ‘new normal.’ with far-reaching economic consequences,” the report said.
Greece, Spain and Italy would be among the hardest hit. The insurer forecast that from May 1 to July 14 of this year, Spain will have experienced 52 days with temperatures above 32 degrees Celsius, followed by 44 for Italy and 43 for Greece.
Liz Alderman is the chief European business correspondent, writing about economic, social and policy developments around Europe.
The post As Heat Grips Europe, a Struggle to Keep Workers and Customers Cool appeared first on New York Times.
