Does anyone have problems with the temperature in their office?
Here it often rises well about 30 during hot days.
However, it often gets up to 28 even on cool days due to poor adjustment of the radiators and staff (mostly female it has to be said) objecting to opening a window.
I find it mad that they can't provide a reasonable temperature even when it's cool outside.
We have no air conditioning.
I find I need a lot smaller dose when its hot.
Its a real problem as I never know what temperature the people at work are going to produce for that day.
This leads to poor control.
I've gone as far as raising this as an official grievance.
I believe there is no upper limit of working temperature in the UK. Last summer, my operating theatre got to 35 deg C over 2 weeks (for what was a bad summer). I am not sure if there is a health and safety concern for diabetics in hot working environments. I am looking into advice from my Occ Health with respect to a chronic disability (diabetes). Will post if anything comes up.
Hi all, there is no such thing as a regulated temperature that is enforced by Health & Safety here in the U.K All that an employer is supposed to do is to provide were practicable, (that is the get out clause) comfort zones.
An acceptable zone of thermal comfort for most people in the UK lies roughly between 13°C (56°F) and 30°C (86°F), with acceptable temperatures for more strenuous work activities concentrated towards the bottom end of the range, and more sedentary activities towards the higher end.
'The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 lay down the criteria for temperature/humidity etc etc but all they outline is that “temperatures should be reasonable” and suitable comfort levels should be aimed for.
The regs state:
“The temperature in workrooms should normally be at least 16 degrees Celsius unless much of the work involves severe physical effort in which case the temperature should be at least 13 degrees Celsius. These temperatures may not, however, ensure reasonable comfort, depending on other factors such as air movement and relative humidity.’
If the temp is going to be too high then employers need to look at introducing window blinds/air coolers/fans etc etc. If that doesn’t work then rest facilities/protective clothing/task rotation may have to be explored.'
There will be a lot of different interpretations of this.
I think the law also says somewhere they have to take into account people with medical conditions that are affected by temperature...
I wouldn't want every office to end up having air conditioning as this would accelerate global warming and is unnecessary in most cases.
Its the stupidity of the problems here that irritate me.
When we were in the previous building, I anonomously called the council health and safety inspector to come and inspect the building.
The office was often over 40 degrees during hot weather.
I was trying to get them to say I could work from home during the very hot weather.
He came to look at the office.
Apparently 47 degrees C was perfectly OK.
I get the impression health and safety inspectors have no idea what they're doing.