The Worker Solidarity Network is calling on the province to introduce laws to protect people from extreme heat while on the job.
The network held a rally of about 20 people at Premier David Eby’s MLA office in Kitsilano Friday to call for worker protections during extreme heat and wildfire smoke. Both are increasing in intensity and frequency as the effects of climate change increase.
Currently B.C. has reactionary policies that kick in when an employee’s core temperature hits 38 C. A fever is generally considered to be 38 to 39.9 C.
In response to questions from The Tyee, the Ministry of Labour said it would not be regulating workplace temperature because heat stress and injury are caused by a combination of things such as humidity, radiant heat, the physical demands of work, individual health, hydration and clothing.
“Because of this complexity regulations do not set a specific indoor temperature limit,” the ministry’s emailed statement said. “Instead, a risk-based approach is needed to account for all contributing factors.”
But the regulations are failing vulnerable workers, said Jiyoon Ha, communications co-ordinator for the Worker Solidarity Network, which advocates for the rights of precarious non-unionized workers across B.C.
She said workers would be better served by policies that kick in if a workplace hits 27 C — before an injury occurs.
Heat waves are deadly
Heat waves are the deadliest form of extreme weather in the world.
During the 2021 heat dome that stretched from June 25 to July 1, more than 740 British Columbians died, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in Canada, following a 1936 heat wave that killed 1,180 people across the country, according to Public Safety Canada.
The Worker Solidarity Network is asking the province to legislate two tiers of temperature-related protections.
The first would kick in once a workplace hits 27 C, and a second tier of protections would be for workers who have to work 12-hour shifts in temperatures above 32 C, Ha said.
More than 1,000 people have sent letters to the province asking for indoor workplace temperature limits, organizers with Worker Solidarity Network told The Tyee. The names of those who wrote letters were added to a banner that was unrolled on Friday in front of Premier David Eby’s MLA office.
Jurisdictions such as Spain and Germany have policies requiring indoor workplaces to stay between 18 and 24 C. The Worker Solidarity Network’s request is more “flexible” in hopes that will make it more palatable to government, Ha said.
Gabrielle Peters, a disabled writer and policy analyst, said legislating 18 to 24 C in all indoor spaces would be best because that would improve workplace and living conditions for people who work from home, for caregivers whose work isn’t always formally recognized and for people with disabilities.
Being able to withstand extreme temperatures isn’t a sign of toughness because almost anyone can be made extremely sick by heat, she said.
The province says seniors, young kids and babies, people with pre-existing health conditions, people with mental illness, the marginally housed, those who use substances, workers in hot environments, pregnant people and people with limited mobility are “especially at risk” in extreme heat.
A 2024 study found that being on income assistance more than doubles the risk of dying during a heat wave, and certain medications can reduce a body’s ability to regulate its temperature.
Disabled bodies are also affected by heat at lower temperatures, Peters said. People also tend to exceed legislated limits when they are in place, so aiming for lower temperature limits helps keep the most people safe.
“It doesn’t matter if an indoor space is cool enough for a typical person if an atypical person is in that workplace,” she said.
If the government were to set maximum indoor temperatures, it should focus on comfort, which is a sign that the body isn’t being subjected to unnecessary heat stress, rather than just avoiding illness or death, Peters said.
It would be unacceptable if drinking water, indoor plumbing or heat in the winter were considered “fine” because people suffered but didn’t die in huge numbers, Peters added.
Hydration, shade can help prevent heat injury
When a work site is over 27 C, Ha said, employers should provide about a litre of cool water to drink every hour, and employees shouldn’t have to walk more than 400 metres to access water.
The Worker Solidarity Network is also asking employers to provide air-conditioned or shaded spaces with ventilation where all employees can go to cool down during their breaks.
Workplaces that carry the most heat-related risk include food service, construction and agriculture. Jobs that require workers to wear hot uniforms are also more dangerous.
During the summer, temperatures inside construction workers’ helmets can hit 57 C when the environmental temperature is 33 C, according to a 2014 study in Hong Kong.
Peters said she grew up in a blue-collar family and remembers hearing every summer of fatalities in factories due to heat. It’s abhorrent these are still happening, she said. “Basically everyone who is poor gets mandated to work in extreme heat.”
At the rally Ingrid Mendez, executive director of the Migrant Workers Centre, spoke about visiting agricultural workers in B.C.’s Interior during the 2021 heat dome. She said workers were sleeping in RVs with indoor temperatures above 60 C and being required to work next to wildfires.
Migrant workers get injured all the time, but these injuries are rarely formally reported because people don’t want to lose their jobs, she said.
“These workers are invisible to everyone,” she said. “We’re taking advantage of labour and not giving them anything.”
Peters expressed frustration at governments focused on climate change mitigation while ignoring how societies have to adapt to warming temperatures.
“There’s no rationality to justify the level of inaction,” she said. “We should not have faced a single additional summer where poor and working-class people are living and working in conditions without proper cooling.”
The B.C. Employment Standards Act requires employers to provide a 30-minute unpaid meal break for shifts longer than five hours. But, Ha said, workplace cultures can lead to people not taking their breaks.
The people at highest risk of heat injury are also the ones who are least able to access water and cooling breaks, Ha said.
She’d like to see government step up enforcement to ensure mandated or negotiated breaks are being taken and that workplaces are providing water and cooling areas.
The Worker Solidarity Network is also spreading awareness about the right to refuse unsafe work, Ha said. A worker doesn’t have to prove the work is unsafe to refuse it, and an employer isn’t allowed to punish them for refusing to work, she added.
Indoor temperatures of 26 C or higher are considered “very risky” for people susceptible to heat illness, Dr. Michael Schwandt, Vancouver Coastal Health medical health officer, previously told The Tyee. Indoor temperatures of 31 C or hotter are considered “dangerous,” he added.
When indoor temperatures climb above 35 C, cooling strategies like indoor fans can actually increase a person’s risk of heat stress, according to WorkSafeBC.
Strategies such as encouraging people to close their windows against sweltering daytime temperatures and open them in the cooler evenings also ignore how high temperatures often come hand in hand with poor air quality, which can further impact people’s health, Peters told The Tyee.
People who are exposed to the highest temperatures at work are also more likely to live in housing without access to mechanical cooling, she added.
