Dutch employers seek new rules for work on hot days

Some Dutch employers are advocating for a new approach to working on hot days, De Telegraaf reports. As the weather in the Netherlands gets hotter and hotter year by year, some employers become concerned about safety risks as a result of working in the heat. Among other ideas, they advocate for flexible working hours during extreme heat. In the meantime, this summer, for example, was the hottest in the Netherlands since the measurements began in 1901.

According to the new research by employers' organization AWVN, among more than 200 employees, the heat stress has become a significant issue for the workers in the Netherlands. The majority of respondents, 85 percent, report problems when it is extremely hot, with more than a third experiencing cases where required work could not be carried out due to extreme heat. AWVN clarified that this research does not exclusively apply to those who work outside. Out of the respondents, only 2 percent almost always work outdoors.

“Heat is an issue that employers must take into account more and more,” Jannes van der Velde, an AWVN spokesperson, told De Telegraaf.

More than half of companies now have a heat protocol. Measures like extra cooling and additional breaks are also becoming more popular.

“The real concern, however, is the long term, especially because heat will become more frequent. The effects can be serious, Van der Velde said.

For many employers the tipping point is at around 30 degrees, while some see the heat’s impacts from 25 degrees on. Earlier international research showed that work productivity falls by an average of about 2 percent for every additional degree of warmth.

That is a problem when it comes to AWVN’s goal of higher productivity among workers in order to sustain the country’s living standards. “Even a modest loss of productivity due to hot weather is, in that context, particularly unwelcome.”

According to the organization, the new hot weather arrangements must remain cost-neutral, meaning that extra pay should eb avoided. These arrangements are in the interest of both employer and employee,” Van der Velde said. “Paying additional allowances is therefore not the obvious course.”

AWVN is considering examining how successful economies in other countries deal with extreme heat during working hourse. “We can draw lessons from that,” the spokesperson said.