BWI calls for action on safety of workers exposed to extreme heat amid global warming

In the wake of unprecedented heat waves across the world and in the run-up to the Climate Summit in Dubai in 2023, the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) is calling for immediate action and ambitious measures to protect outdoor workers from the effects of excessive heat, and to promote the right to healthy and safe workplaces for all workers performing work in situations of adverse weather conditions.

Geneva, 10 July 2023 - As global temperatures continue to rise at a fast pace and scientists are warning that the world is moving towards a climate breakdown earlier than foreseen, unleashing life-threatening risks for all human beings, BWI has launched a campaign to address the effects of climate change on construction and forestry workers’ health.

Extreme heat, exacerbated by global warming, poses risks such as heat-related illnesses, heat stroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, reduced concentration and increased risk of accidents. In addition, rising sea levels and increased frequency of severe weather events lead to flooding, landslides, and other physical dangers, putting workers at greater risk while performing their jobs.

Construction trade unions are pioneering collective agreements with industry employers to regulate working conditions and processes under high temperatures and other weather events related to the global climate emergency. They are major breakthrough for workers. However, the large majority of construction workers remain unprotected.

BWI is calling on governments and employers to engage globally and in each country with trade unions in the building and construction, wood, forestry and allied material sectors to ensure workers are protected from health and safety risks as an effect of climate change. 

Ambet Yuson, BWI General Secretary said: “In too many countries, construction sites are becoming deadly workplaces during summer due to the foolish under-estimation of risks associated with excessive heat. 

In November this year, the UN Climate Summit – so called COP28 – in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will take place in one of the fastest-warming places on the planet, the Middle East and the Gulf Cooperation Countries.

In Dubai, world leaders and their delegations will reside in luxury residential hotels and modern complexes with comforts and green certified standards. This marks a shocking disconnect with the poor, dangerous and too often deadly working and living conditions of migrant construction workers who built those facilities, worsened by excessive heat.  

If governments are to fulfil their fundamental obligations to respect and promote the human right to a healthy and safe environment when taking decisions that work for everyone, they must first and foremost consider the voice of those workers affected by the climate crisis”.

The health of the planet matters for the health of construction and forestry workers. BWI calls on its affiliates as well as on all those who believe outdoor labourers deserve decent and quality jobs, better working conditions and healthy and safe environment in the face of the climate emergency and extreme heat, to join in solidarity the campaign “Heat-up Workers’ Rights, Not the Planet!"

For more information, go here.