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Canteen staff at a postal sorting office in the west of England really couldn't stand the heat in the kitchen. Lack of ventilation, twenty-four hour cooking and a hot summer finally proved too much and they went to their union for help.

As a result of of discussions and investigations, the canteen menu switched for the summer to salads and cold meats. It was a blessed relief for the kitchen workers and a healthier diet for the posties they served, too.

Whenever the thermometer soars, the Trades Union Congress and Health & Safety Executive (HSE) receive an avalanche of phone calls from workers asking at what temperature they can leave their office, shop or factory.

The Health & Safety Executive has even issued a booklet about it, Thermal comfort in the workplace: guidance for employers. But the advice in the booklet, and the advice the TUC can offer is only that — advice, because in Britain, there is no maximum temperature at which you can be made to work, only a minimum.

The minimum temperatures are set out in the Approved Code of Practice to the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. These include different minimum temperatures for physical (13°C) and non-physical work (16°C).

A motion from the Musicians' Union (MU) at the September TUC Congress in Brighton aimed to change that. It called on the TUC to campaign for the Health and Safety Commission to introduce a maximum workplace temperature. At the height of summer, the MU's members are often exposed to sweltering heat in clubs and other venues.

The MU and the TUC see the case for similar differences in maximum temperatures. But no difference in the need for a limit of some sort — the TUC has in the past suggested a 27°C limit for physical work or 30°C for sedentary occupations. Some people think these levels are rather high, but they would at least represent a start.

The problem is widespread. Calls to the TUC have come not only from kitchen workers, but also people working in shops and offices with huge plate glass windows (who say they feel they are like insects trapped under a magnifying glass). There have also been calls from people in stuffy call centres and sweltering factories. In one case, the TUC's affiliate for ships' officers — Numast — had to deal with a case of extreme heatstroke on a ship in the Gulf.

When the TUC surveyed union safety representatives in 9,000 individual workplaces across the economy last year, one in five (20 per cent) said that high temperatures were a problem — twice as many as complained about low temperatures (11 per cent).

Of course, it can be easier to deal with low temperatures than high ones — wrapping up warmly, providing heaters and hot drinks and so on. But there is only so far you can strip down when it gets hot, and of course stripping off when working outside is frowned on — not for aesthetic reasons but because the sun's rays are such a powerful source of cancer causing UV.

Action on two fronts
The TUC wants to see employers take action on two fronts. The first course of action would be appropriate where temperatures rarely soar, and a complete building redesign would not be reasonable or practicable. This would include measures to combat the heat could include shutting down sources of extra temperature (such as canteen kitchens or large electronic machinery), and providing fans and cold water.

But even these common-sense solutions need to be thought about. In one of the call centres reported to the TUC's hotline earlier this year, staff were charged for the water provided and in another, trips to the water cooler were docked from bonus payments. Like any health and safety measure, the workers should not have to pay in any way.

Other, impromptu solutions may actually be dangerous — trailing wires from fans, for instance. It is unlikely that anyone will sanction a return to the system used by steelworkers to cope with the heat from the furnaces, which was to send the apprentices out for pints of cold beer.

In buildings where heat is a more common problem, employers will need to install air conditioning or make sure the windows can be opened to let a draught in. They may have to rearrange the work areas so that employees are moved away from hot equipment or direct sunlight shining through plate glass windows. Some heat- producing machinery might need to be moved away from where the workers are, or the employees could be allowed regular breaks away from it.

Some people ask whether protecting workers from the heat isn't just mollycoddling. After all, can workplaces really get that hot? The answer is, yes. Earlier this year, two people died when they were sent into a bakery oven that had not cooled down enough — they died in the heat within minutes.

Anyone who works with safety critical equipment is going to be slower in the heat and more prone to mistakes. Stress and violence can soar in the heat, and it is not just the effect of heat on workers that matters. Dealing with irate customers in sweltering heat can easily become dangerous. Some workers are more at risk than others — pregnant women, for example, need special consideration, and anyone who is already suffering from dehydration ought not to be allowed to sweat it out.

So the TUC will be campaigning for building designers to think about the heat traps they may be building into their projects. It will be campaigning for employers to take all the steps they can when the mercury begins to rise to uncomfortable levels, and we will be campaigning for workers to have the right to work in temperatures that suit them. We will be asking the Health and Safety Commission to promote a public debate on whether to treat heat like cold, and add maximums to the minimums in the Workplace Regs ACoP.

Thermal comfort in the workplace: guidance for employers, HSG194, HSE Books