Right now, as heatwaves bake much of the planet and offices turn into slow cookers, millions of workers are sweating through their shirts with precisely zero legal right to do anything about it. Fans pointed at their faces. Ice in their drinks. Nothing in writing.
Here’s the thing that’ll do your head in: in the UK, there is a legal minimum workplace temperature, but there is no legal maximum. The law decided that working in the cold is unacceptable. Working in conditions hot enough to make you physically ill? That’s just… fine. Allegedly.
So we went through the rules to find out where in the world workers are actually protected when the mercury goes through the roof. The short answer: not many places. And the hottest countries are often the ones with the least protection. Make that make sense.
