“Retreats! Climate ! Same fight ! No retirees on a scorched planet. At a time when the Spanish neighbor is hit by a particularly early heat wave, the slogan of environmental activists suddenly becomes more concrete. The summer of 2022, whose three heat wave episodes caused nearly 3,000 deaths according to Public Health France, seems destined to repeat itself. So, now that the government has pushed through its retirement, the challenge is not just to work until 64. But to be able to do it in a Paris at 50°C.
“Before working more, it is the need to work differently that will arise for us”, slice Jean-François Naton, co-rapporteur of the opinion “Work, health, environment” unveiled by the Economic, social and environmental advice (Cese) Tuesday. So, how to adapt working conditions to climate change? Prevention, training, pace and workplace, everything needs to be rethought for the elected CGT, who spoke with 20 minutes.
Act this summer
In its report, the Cese calls for measures to be put in place as soon as possible, in anticipation of another particularly difficult summer for certain professions. “We must take into account the heat wave as a bad weather to stop the work”, especially in the road or the building, pleads Jean-François Naton. At present, only phenomena such as snow or hail appear on the list of bad weather conditions which allow work to be suspended.
“For outside trades, the question will very quickly arise,” he warns. Between contact with the scorching sun and drought, the days promise to be particularly difficult for the farmers. But the issue is valid “for all workers”. Jean-François Naton recommends quickly setting up “listening dynamics to take into account the realities of those who work”, and quickly engaging in the debate on “how to face the summer” within each company. It is particularly at this level that problems related to lack of sleep and difficulties in taking transport during heat waves can come into play.
Social dialogue in the absence of law
“The whole philosophy” of the Cese report is also based on dialogue within companies and trade branches, underlines Jean-François Naton. Among the recommendations of the opinion, the inclusion of a “duty to listen” as a “principle of prevention in the Labor Code” figures prominently. “You have to listen to the workers to take into account the conditions and the reality of the work, and not what a ministry or a management may think of it”, boasts the elected CGT.
The former cook does not have a strong enough word to denounce the action of the government. “There is not a word about the transformation of working conditions in Elisabeth Borne’s 100-day roadmap”, which nevertheless runs until this summer, deplores the vice-president of Cese. “It is criminal to have pushed back the retirement age in an ideological way without asking the question of how we are holding up”, in particular in the summer, he judges. Moreover, the Cese does not encourage “adding more laws”, but emphasizes raising awareness and training “leaders and elected officials to take current phenomena into account”.
Adapt, mitigate, slow down
It remains to be seen how to adapt the workload to the weight that the climate places on the bodies. “The impact of the heat must be analyzed in terms of the physical situation” of each, believes Jean-François Naton. Staggering schedules, cutting days, but also “slowing down” and “adapting the intensity and density of work to age” are thus avenues put forward by the co-rapporteur of the text, not opposed to a reduction in the number of hours worked the last years before retirement.
He also points to office towers, schools and hospitals “particularly ill-suited to the heat, with the sun beating down on large bay windows”. This is where the danger of “mal-adaptation” points: putting on the air conditioning is contributing to the problem. The simple solutions (curtains, rearranging the space) exist in the short term, but we will have to rethink our workplaces in the future. Finally, Jean-François Naton cites a “great knowledge challenge” on the risks associated with “solvents and paint” in stifling heat, on which research still needs to be addressed.