As the great and the good of climate policy gather in Baku, Azerbaijan for COP29, and LinkedIn and Twitter feeds begin to overflow with a maddening nexus of updates, ideas and arguments, take a deep breath and take a few minutes to immerse yourself in a different environment. reality. A reality that at first glance may seem pretty far from the well-intentioned acronym soup of NCQGFT, L&D, NDCs and more.
A thought experiment…
Imagine you are a highly skilled professional, respected in your community, and supporting your young family with the wages you earn in an industry that provides essential goods to people around the world. Perhaps you live in New Delhi, Dhaka, Karachi or Colombo – or any of the major garment manufacturing centers in South or Southeast Asia. Right now, the point is that it’s hot, really hot. Like earlier this yeara heat wave bathes your city in 40+ degree temperatures.
As a result, you get tired from lack of sleep. An electric fan struggles to cool your one-room house; when an intermittent power supply is running, all it does is move hot air. You have a one-year-old baby at home being looked after by your mother – both of whom are at risk of dangerous heat stress for their age. You are worried about their health. The factory you work in has air conditioning, but the high demand for electricity across the city means the grid struggles to keep up: blackouts are common. When the AC goes off, the temperature in the workplace rises rapidly.
You’re getting paid for your work, but like all your colleagues, you’re tired and unable to work at your usual high speed. You know that your earnings will be lower than usual during these hot weeks. Not only are you working slower, needing more breaks and access to cool water, but you’re also worried about taking these while eating at work. At the same time, you know that your electricity will be higher and the prices of basic food items in the market will increase rapidly.
Friends who work in neighboring factories adjust their shift patterns to work mostly during cooler times of the day. But that still involves traveling to work in the early hours when it’s still dark—not something you feel comfortable doing in an area notorious for sexual harassment (and worse). Plus, your boss is incredibly stressful. He probably doesn’t sleep well either. Everyone working slower means we are behind on orders. As colleagues struggle to focus, mistakes and accidents are more frequent; quality standards are not consistently met. The boss is short-tempered at the best of times; more yelling and cursing. Everyone goes out of their way…
Excessive heat and workers’ rights
Replace the ‘garment worker’ with a warehouse worker or delivery driver, fruit picker or flower picker, and the basic principles of the story still apply. Our planet is heating up rapidly. 2023 was the hottest year since the pre-industrial era and every decade since the 1980s has been warmer than the previous one. This record-breaking trend is expected to continue in 2024. Periods of extreme heat are more frequent and more severe, with serious implications for workers. Recently ILO report highlighted that more than 70% of workers worldwide face health risks related to climate change, and more than 2.4 billion people will be exposed to extreme heat at work.
The climate crisis is a crisis of human rights, including workers. In 2011, the world confirmed it UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Their message is clear: “The responsibility to respect human rights is a global standard of behavior expected of all business enterprises wherever they operate.” This includes during climatic events such as extreme heat. These dimensions must be integrated human rights due diligence.
Good practice already exists
The good news is that employees and employers are already adapting to this new reality. Our colleagues Ethical Apparel Africa presents a collection of useful tutorials shows how indoor work settings, including factories, can reduce extreme heat exposure for workers. These lessons include the introduction of new technologies and adjustments to workplace infrastructure, but most importantly, they rely on collaboration with the employees themselves. The directors of Ethical Apparel Africa have invested in building the skills of their work committees at three levels: shop floor workers, middle management and senior managers. Committees provide a vital structure through which business directors can understand employee priorities and collaborate with them to develop effective solutions and ensure their effective implementation.
The value of an action-based approach with employee representatives is supported by academic evidence. Researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London, have investigated the effects of extreme heat Three working groups in Cambodia. They found that while some measures taken individually by workers had some effect on reducing the proportion of work time spent at unsafe temperatures (especially longer breaks), “Union members spent 51% fewer work minutes at unsafe core body temperatures.” This effect was particularly strong at high temperatures (as measured by wet bulb bulb temperature). Researchers have documented the positive impact of unions a) providing members with heat mitigation information, b) warning members of predicted dangerous temperatures, and c) negotiating with employers to address excessive heat in the workplace. These are key interventions to make workplaces less dangerous during extreme heat. They rest on it is a fundamental right that allows freedom of association and collective bargainingEnshrined in ILO basic conventions C87 and C98.
The power of joint action
The Ethical Trading Initiative is a tripartite alliance of companies, NGOs and trade unions promoting human rights in supply chains. Tripartite may be a hard word to say, but it’s even harder to do. Sitting around the table with union members and NGO activists focused on workers’ rights is not always a comfortable experience for companies. But we believe that cooperation is the only way to address the systemic problems that underpin human rights risks for workers in global supply chains. As described, extreme heat is a rapidly growing human rights risk. As negotiators from around the world gather around the table in Baku on the path to a 1.5 degree world, we encourage companies around the world to live up to the expectations set by the UN Guiding Principles and to work together to ensure the human rights of workers. it is respected in times of climate crisis.
This article is presented as part of our Climate Justice 2024 Series, which will run parallel to the Climate COP in Baku for the next two weeks. In addition to in-depth articles and podcasts from our global community, we host an online event Community Forum November 21 (10 to 11:15 a.m. EST / 3 to 4:15 p.m. GMT). Join us as we come together as a community to explore how businesses can put people at the center of climate action.
