‘Advisories don’t scare anybody’: Include heat protection in labour codes, say worker unions

Several labour unions have demanded, in writing, that India’s labour codes be reformed to include more explicit provisions for working in extreme heat. Record-breaking heat in recent years has moved government bodies to issue advisories urging employers to reschedule working hours and make drinking water available to workers. But workers say this isn’t enough in the face of life-threatening heat.

“Advisories don’t scare anybody, so no one is compelled to comply with them,” said Nirmal Gorana, National coordinator of the Gig & Platform Service Workers Union.

Working in conditions where ambient temperatures are sustained above 32 degrees celsius are found to raise the risk of heat-related illness significantly. For India’s largely informal workforce, this type of exposure can be deadly. Workers and researchers woke up to this reality in 2024 – India’s hottest year on record – when temperatures crossed 40 degrees celsius for several days and resulted in more than 40,000 suspected heatstroke cases.

“That year really shaped public opinion about the importance of improving safety measures against heat,” said Aravind Unni, an urban practitioner and researcher on informality and urban spaces.

Each degree rise in temperature is estimated to reduce annual plant output by 2% and worker productivity by 2%-4%, but India’s labour laws haven’t kept pace...

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