Reuters-Climate change adds workplace costs and hazards
September 7, 2023 5 min 1000 words
这篇报道着重强调了气候变化对工作场所的成本和危害。在全球气温不断升高的情况下，工人们面临着严重的健康风险，因为他们的生计往往取决于不论天气如何都必须继续工作。与此同时，研究表明，当温度超过24-26摄氏度（75-79华氏度）时，一些任务的生产率开始受到损害，而在33-34摄氏度（92-93华氏度）左右的温度下，某些任务的生产率可能会减半，而这种温度在今年的七月创下历史记录。 这个问题的专家指出，雇主需要权衡成本与工人健康之间的关系，尤其是在温度超过35摄氏度（95华氏度）且生产率低于预期50%的情况下，是否值得继续工作。然而，由于数据不足、监管不均衡以及不同地区工人面临热应激的方式不同，确定这个点变得更加困难。最受影响的仍然是那些在户外工作的工人，特别是那些来自全球南方的工人，其中包括全球1.7亿的移民工人。 此外，报道还提到，虽然国际劳工组织已经制定了关于工人有权离开工作场所的公约，但很少有工人知道这个公约或敢于使用它。同时，许多国家仍然没有设定最高工作温度的法律，而在一些已经设定了的国家，监管和执法也存在问题。这是因为工作场所监管机构资源不足，比如美国职业健康与安全管理局需要165年才能检查完其监管范围内的所有工作场所。 最后，报道指出，自动化将在解决这个问题上发挥作用，但问题的解决不仅仅依靠设定工作温度的上限。工会和雇主需要进行咨询，以找到相对便宜的解决方案，例如通过调整工人的工作位置来减少热传导。这个问题还将对社会产生更广泛的影响，包括工时的调整和对工人的福利保障。 总的来说，这篇报道突出了气候变化对工作场所的多重挑战，需要综合考虑工人健康、生产率和社会责任。这个问题不仅需要雇主和政府的关注，也需要国际社会共同努力来制定更全面的解决方案。
As Texas baked in this summer's record temperatures, local UPS driver Chris Begley started feeling unwell before collapsing at a customer's premises. The 57-year-old's death in hospital was announced in late August - just as his trade union was ratifying a deal with UPS on improved heat protections.
"Chris Begley should still be alive to experience them," the Teamsters union said in a statement of provisions such as a promise to include air conditioning in new delivery vans from next year and to retrofit existing vehicles.
In a statement to local media, UPS (UPS.N) said it was cooperating with the authorities as they investigated the cause of death. "We train our people to recognize the symptoms of heat stress, and we respond immediately to any request for help," it said.
As global warming leads to more frequent spells of extreme heat around the world, workers are among the most exposed to serious health risks because their livelihoods often depend on them carrying on regardless.
At the same time, studies show that productivity starts to be impaired at temperatures above 24-26 degrees Celsius (75-79 degrees Fahrenheit) and, for some tasks, slashed by half from around 33-34C - levels repeatedly exceeded in a year which included the hottest July on record.
"Unlike some occupational health and safety risks you see a direct impact (from heat) on the health of workers and a direct impact on productivity," said Halshka Graczyk, a specialist on the issue at the International Labour Organization (ILO).
"So does it make sense for the employer to keep a job site running that day if it is more than 35C and productivity is less than 50% of what they are expecting?" Graczyk said of an awkward cost-benefit ratio that more workplaces will start to face.
Even on the optimistic assumption that the world hits its Paris Agreement goal of capping warming at 1.5C, productivity losses will amount to 2.2% of global work hours or $2.4 trillion in output by 2030, the ILO estimates.
But finding the point at which employer costs can be minimised without compromising worker welfare is all the harder given the lack of clear data, uneven regulation, and the unequal way that workers around the world will experience heat stress.
Not surprisingly, white-collar workers in air-conditioned offices will be less affected: the big impact will remain initially on outdoor workers in sectors from construction to agriculture and in particular those in the Global South.
Among the most exposed will be the world's 170 million migrant workers. Chaya Vaddhanaphuti, a researcher at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, said his studies of migrant workers from Myanmar underlined their vulnerability.
"These labourers tend to display extra stoicism and endurance - partly because they need to show to their Thai bosses that they can work and hence still get hired," he said.
"This puts them in more danger during the heatwave period and they often lack any paperwork or access to medical services."
An internationally agreed ILO convention grants workers a right to leave a workplace without fear of retaliation if they have "reasonable justification" to believe they are in danger - but labour advocates say few workers know of the convention or dare use it.
Many European and other usually temperate countries still have no laws establishing maximum work temperatures. Where they exist - such as in China, with its decade-old 40C cap - monitoring and enforcement is patchy.
Often that is because workplace regulators lack resources: the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OCHA) would need 165 years to check each workplace in its remit, estimates labour advocacy group National Employment Law Project (NELP).
"There has to be both carrots and sticks - and without enforcement there are not enough sticks," said Anastasia Christman, senior policy analyst at NELP.
While work temperature caps may prevent some casualties, they do not account for the fact that workers experience stress differently, according to their job role and health profile.
"The number on the thermostat is not as crucial as assessing the risks and talking to the workforce," said Owen Tudor, Deputy General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation.
Consultations might yield relatively cheap fixes: Tudor cited the example of a meatpacking plant which had found it could reduce heat transfer from worker to worker simply by spacing them out more.
Other solutions have wider societal repercussions. The oft-cited switching of work hours to the cooler hours of early morning or late evening leaves workers having to rearrange childcare or facing limited public transport options.
Automation will have a role to play. French winemaker Jerome Volle harvested before dawn this year - mechanising much of the process - to avoid daytime temperatures of 42C which, he told Reuters, "strain both plant and worker".
Heat exposure is already emerging as a source of worker grievance - be it the strikes by staff at the Greek Acropolis tourist site in July, or the successful suing of a Chinese employer last year for the heat stroke death of a cleaner.
As temperatures rise further, pay and performance practices currently favoured in some sectors - for example piece work and output targets that discourage workers from taking rest breaks - may prove indefensible. And if an extreme weather event like a tornado destroys a factory, should workers still get paid?
"Climate change is such a paradigm shift that all of us need to rethink these legacy economic assumptions," said NELP's Christman. "Just doing workplace protection standards won't be enough."