Ideal working temperature

Sully

Hey,

I was wondering, is there any offical temperature that is considered un-healthy to be working in? The reason why I ask is, my friend is working in an arcades change box and the whole place is unbelievably hot and stuffy. I cant stand staying there for 5mins its so bad, and she was to work like 6hours a day with no break and a ****ty fan besides her which just blows the warm air around and doesnt make it cooler.

Customers have even complained about the heat!

Cheers for the heads up, and sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum

feylya

First thing that pops out of that post is the no breaks thing. By law, you must have a fifteen minute break every four hours.

Sully

She works at most 6hours a day.

She brought down a thermometer and it was 29degrees celcius with the fan on!

Zillah

Fans don't lower the temperature, they only cool you down, not the air. Get her to make sure the fan is pointed right at her, unless she's being blown around the place its doing nothing.

leeroybrown

To my knowledge is no legally defined maximum temperature for a workplace in Ireland.

Running Bing

Is there a legally defined minimum comfort level for office chairs? The chairs where I work are not very comfortable and could do with an extra few centimetres of cushioning. Any laws against low cushioning levels?

Huggles

Dunno about a law OP but my office is like a sauna at the moment coupled with the fact that I sit about 5 feet from the server. Its v uncomfortable so I am hoping for some snow soon LOL

It really does affect the way you work tbh so its in an employers interest to make sure that everyone is comfortable, cool enough included.

dermot_sheehan

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054963297

Sully

gabhain7 wrote:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054963297

Sound. Thats helpful, thanks!

Pythia

My office is roasting. I have two fans pointed at me and I drink 2 litres of water during work to try and cool down. It's awful!

qwertz

Ideal working temperature is 21° Celsius. Neither too cold not too warm.

abetarrush

ha, on thursday we were moanin cos the aircon was too cold, even at the lowest level

so suffered a power loss messin with it, then sum1 came in and turned it off

then about an hour later it was too hot! :P

Stark

I make a note to rarely complain about the cold. The cold can be solved with a jumper, you're ****ed in the heat though

Though I remember working Sundays in a computer lab in UCC before in a basement with the heating turned off and that was unpleasant. Had to wear a coat and gloves while I was down there!

jesus_thats_gre

Pythia wrote:

My office is roasting. I have two fans pointed at me and I drink 2 litres of water during work to try and cool down. It's awful!

pics please

Civilian_Target

leeroybrown wrote:

To my knowledge is no legally defined maximum temperature for a workplace in Ireland.

Well, the EU has an enforced standard, which I know from when I was working in more tropical climates, is 40C in less than 80% humidity and 36C in 80%+ humidity. In this said country, the goverment had the final say on the temperature on all publicly displayed thermometers, and it was commonly "39C" to keep the country running...

Wishbone Ash

While the employer has a duty to do what is "reasonably practicable" to provide an ideal working environment, in some places of work it is necessary to take other factors into account.

For example, in a nursing home, it may be necessary to have the temperature at approx. 22 degrees as old people are less likely to be able to generate heat especially while sitting in a chair. This may be too hot for staff who will be busy dressing, feeding, washing, changing etc. but the residents comfort would probably be paramount.

In a meat factory, conditions are often very cold but this is necessary. It is the duty of the employer to provide adequate warm clothing/footwear in this environment.

If a working environment was excessively hot, but only for a couple of weeks per year, I presume that the employer could argue that it would not be "reasonably practicable" to install air conditioning, hence the proliferation of fans.