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Ensure staff are warm in ‘big freeze’, employers warned

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With Britain enduring its ‘big freeze’, retail trade union Usdaw is reminding employers of their obligations to ensure staff are warm.

Employers have a duty, under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, to maintain a “reasonable temperature” in the workplace. Although it doesn’t specify temperatures, the Code of Practice says 16ºC, or 13ºC for strenuous physical work, should be the minimum.

The regulations also state that employers must provide thermometers so that staff can determine the temperature where they work.

Usdaw General Secretary Sir Bill Connor said: “Employers have a duty to make sure the workplace temperature is kept at a reasonable level. When circumstances dictate that it isn’t possible or practical to keep the temperature at or above 16ºC, the employer must carry out risk assessments.”

Usdaw to recommends that employers:

  • relax dress codes to allow workers to wear warmer clothing
  • provide additional clothing for those working in close proximity to external doors, allowing for frequent breaks away from colder areas
  • arrange for safe temporary heating systems to be installed.


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    One Response

    1. too hot?
      I regularly find the office I work in too warm verging on hot, yet the others around me are still feeling cold. Are the employers legally obliged to maintain a comfortable working environment for all staff, even those in the minority? I have requested to move to a cooler area, but that has been refused. I have also requested a fan but I “dont have a medical condition that requires me to keep cool” and we’re not allowed to bring our own. What options are open to me to take this further?

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