Labour code must shield workers from heat stress

Deepa Padmar and Prathiksha Ullal are senior resident fellows with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy; the views expressed are personal.

Interventions treating heatwaves as temporary disasters are criticized; experts urge long-term infrastructural requirements and foresight, including cooling and ventilation measures, cool-roofing, and high-volume, low-speed fans, to be hardcoded into labour law.

A comparison of the OSHWC Code with the erstwhile Factories Act reveals a dilution of specificity on heat protection, with heat-related mandates left to guidelines or notifications by advisory boards rather than a guiding framework.

In the absence of direct provisions for heat protection in labour laws, state governments issue advisories and notifications under the Disaster Management Act, which typically include measures like rescheduling working hours and ensuring hydration, but are usually not enforceable.

A recent study conducted on informal workers in Delhi found significant income loss for workers as a result of rising wet bulb temperatures, alongside a surge in prices of essential commodities such as medicine, ice, and water, with costs increasing by 14.4% per degree rise in temperature.

The International Labour Organization estimates that India is one of the hardest-hit countries in terms of heat stress suffered by labour.

The Indian Meteorological Department declared that a year of extreme heat and a brutal summer looms ahead, framing heat stress as a periodic risk to workers.

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSHWC) Code, 2020, provides a broad framework under which the Central and state governments are required to notify the responsibilities of employers.

The Factories Act 1948 contained detailed provisions mandating ventilation and temperature control, and its Model Rules provided for specific wet bulb temperature thresholds and inspection of temperatures in factories.