Experts from Harvard University have recommended establishing a dialogue with workers on formulating heat action plans. This is to tailor interventions for workers in different sectors and their differentiated experience of extreme heat.
The recommendations came after discussions with over 150 experts were held at a four-day conference from March 19 in Delhi. The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute and the Salata Institute For Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University are the organising partners for the event tilted, “India 2047: Building a Climate-Resilient Future”.
Different workers will have different needs for adaptation. Indoor workers in restaurants, warehouses, and industrial laundries face fundamentally serious but different challenges than outdoor construction workers or farm labourers. Delivery workers lacking a common workplace have entirely different sets of challenges, researchers from Harvard Law School concluded following the inter-disciplinary gathering in India.
“Different workers will have different needs for adaptation… We still need enforceable rules that give workers important baseline rights and the legal protections to demand those rights. But strong heat action plans — shaped by real collaboration with workers and their representatives — can be a powerful complement,” Sharon Block, Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School and Raj Nayak, fellow at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School wrote in the Harvard Climate Blog last week.
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The authors said last summer the Joe Biden administration proposed landmark workplace standards that would protect workers from dangerous exposure to extreme heat both inside and outside. The proposed rule would use heat index readings to trigger enforceable requirements for employers, including providing their employees with water and rest areas and 15-minute breaks. The change in president has thrown into question the future of federal heat standards. But there are other levers for protecting workers exposed to heat, they wrote.
After spending four days in New Delhi with over 150 experts in many disciplines from around the world, the Harvard team also visited the workers organising with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad.
In the US, so far, several large cities have developed basic resources for dealing with heat, short of formal heat action plans. For instance, in response to heatwaves in the 1990s, Chicago developed an early Climate Action Plan in 2008. But that included little discussion of work and workers. New York City has posted “Beat the Heat” public resources, including some basic tips for outdoor workers, like drinking water, taking frequent rest breaks in shaded or air-conditioned areas, and keeping an eye out for heat stress. Los Angeles has its own resources with similar, broad tips for workers. But these are not tailored for different kinds of workers.
The authors met workers at SEWA who do piecework in their homes, moving inside and outside through the day.
“We also met SEWA staff who have for decades organised on the famous salt pans of Gujarat, where work has become more challenging as the ground bakes under extreme heat, but solar power is helping ease the burden. We also heard about the challenges of time-shifting construction for some informal workers who have nowhere to cool off during mid-day cessations, and whose workdays may be unsustainably lengthened by such measures. They have advocated for accessible cooling stations and compensation for lost work hours to be included in heat action plans,” the authors wrote.
HT sent queries to experts at Harvard on what temperature is possibly a human limit (beyond which it is difficult to survive) and what duration of such exposures are dangerous, and measures recommended for gig workers who spend long hours outdoors.
“Without air conditioning, humans cannot survive longer than a few hours when the wet-bulb temperature (a combined measure of heat and humidity) exceeds 35°C. Most people will suffer and die below this limit,” said Kaighin McColl, Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.
“Shade, rest, water and fans help. But beyond survivable limits, only air conditioning works,” she added.
“There are many strategies that can protect gig workers, including people with outdoor exposure during heat shocks. Measures that are already being implemented in India include providing compensation for workers who cannot work because of mandated periods of work cessation (usually during mid-day); access to communal cooling centres in close proximity to workers’ homes for home-based workers, near worksites for construction workers or in proximity to restaurants or other central locations for drivers and delivery workers,” said Block.
“Strategies also include education about signs of heat stress and heat stroke with access to free or affordable health care to address heat-related symptoms; cash transfers to allow workers to purchase the kinds of protective equipment that they need most, like umbrellas, water or fans; and other forms of compensation like parametric insurance so that workers can take time off when temperatures reach unsafe levels. We know that these basic measures save lives,” she added.