This month the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) sent employers a reminder about their obligations to manage temperature in the workplace, with an emphasis on protecting staff from cold and wintry conditions. The HSE guidance covers the requirement for employers to maintain a reasonably comfortable temperature and the steps employers can take to maintain comfortable temperatures following a risk assessment.
This blog discusses the expectations for managing temperature in the workplace, what you can do to ensure the temperature is comfortable for your workers and the importance of mitigating the impact of temperature-related health issues.
What is a reasonable workplace temperature?
So far as reasonably practicable, you must ensure that the temperature in your business premises is reasonable for the comfort of your staff. The minimum temperature for working indoors should usually be at least 16°C, and areas such as changing rooms, showers and toilets should not be too cold. If your staff do physical work, the guidance recommends that the minimum temperature can usually be a little lower: at least 13°C.
These temperatures are rough guides and the actual comfortable minimum temperature for your staff will be influenced by many factors, including any clothing they must wear, humidity and air movement (eg draughts), as well as the type of work being done.
There is no maximum indoor working temperature as some workplaces are hot by the nature of what they do (eg bakeries) but the temperature should be at a comfortable level for your staff.
Outdoor work can also have an immediate or long-term impact on workers’ health, and the weather can create health and safety risks, notably risks of falling on ice and snow.
How to manage workplace temperature
If you have staff, you must provide enough thermometers around your premises to ensure that they can check the temperature of their workplace. However, you do not need to place one in every room and should ensure that they are suitably placed (eg not in direct sunlight) (see our Q&A for further guidance).
You must also implement appropriate measures to protect workers following an assessment of the risks posed by temperature in the workplace. This could include using heating, ventilation and/or air conditioning to maintain a constant reasonable temperature on your premises. Your premises should be adequately insulated where necessary, and windows should be fitted with blinds or curtains where possible to minimise the effect of sunlight on comfort and temperature.
If workers are too cold, you can take practical steps to ensure workers are comfortable, including providing adequate workplace heating, designing processes to limit exposure to cold areas, limiting draughts and providing adequate protective clothing for cold environments.
If workers are too hot, you should consider providing fans and air-conditioning, positioning desks away from direct sunlight, using insulating material around hot equipment and providing cold water dispensers.
In both cases, working arrangements can be altered to avoid the effects of these temperatures, such as introducing flexible working patterns or job rotation to limit exposure to the cold/heat and providing adequate rest breaks to allow workers to get hot/cold drinks or to cool down/warm up.
The HSE has also provided guidance for those working with chilled or frozen products.
You can find our discussion of maintaining a comfortable working environment in relation to temperature in our Q&A.
How to manage temperature-related health issues
If your workers are becoming ill regularly and you suspect their illnesses may be caused by the temperature in your workplace, or if your staff complain about the temperature in the workplace, you should review the situation and, if necessary, put in place controls to manage the risks. As well as taking the steps listed above, you may need to:
- put medical screening or regular health surveillance in place for staff who are pregnant, disabled or ill, or who are taking certain medications; and
- assess the risks associated with your working habits and current practices and (where necessary) change these to minimise the risks.
You can use our General risk assessment for an office template to conduct an appropriate assessment of the risks in your workplace. The risk assessment will help you to comply with your legal health and safety obligations by providing examples of common hazards present in an office and the possible actions you could take to minimise the risks they pose. You can also find further guidance on health and safety risk assessments in our Q&A.
The content in this article is up to date at the date of publishing. The information provided is intended only for information purposes, and is not for the purpose of providing legal advice. Sparqa Legal’s Terms of Use apply.
Marion joined Sparqa Legal as a Senior Legal Editor in 2018. She previously worked as a corporate/commercial lawyer for five years at one of New Zealand’s leading law firms, Kensington Swan (now Dentons Kensington Swan), and as an in-house legal consultant for a UK tech company. Marion regularly writes for Sparqa’s blog, contributing across its commercial, IP and health and safety law content.