The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia calls on employers to stop work between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. today and all the following days, when the outside temperature exceeds 36 degrees outdoors, and not allow employees to be exposed to direct sunlight.
At the same time, employees have the right, in accordance with the Law on Safety and Health at Work, the Rulebook on Preventive Measures for Safe and Healthy Work at the Workplace and the Guidelines for Safe and Healthy Work Outdoors at High Temperatures, to demand from employers that they be protected from the harmful effects of atmospheric impact on their safety and health.
The SSSS calls on employees and employers to cooperate with each other these days and responsibly apply all the provided measures to protect health and safety during work: adapt the work regime to high temperatures, organize frequent breaks, bring in large quantities of water and soft drinks, provide rooms for cooling down and shelter from the sun.
Also, they organize the introduction of frequent replacements of employees, the provision and provision of necessary first aid in case of employee health problems.
Employers are also obliged to provide employees with information about the symptoms of diseases that can be caused by high temperatures – dehydration, sunstroke, heat rash, heat exhaustion and cramps, especially heatstroke.
At the same time, we invite employers who organize the work process indoors to ensure that the temperature in the work rooms, regardless of the type of work, can be a maximum of 28 degrees.
In the center of all activities, health and safety at work must be in the first place, SSSS reports, reports Tanjug.
Orbović: I have not heard that any of the employers accepted the recommendation and stopped work because of the high temperature
The president of the Association of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia (SSSS) Ljubisav Orbović said today that he did not hear that any of the employers suspended work between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. due to the high temperature, as recommended by the union.
“I have not heard that any of the employers suspended work during the period of the highest daily temperature, between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.”, Orbović told Beta.
SSSS today called on employers to stop work between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. and not allow employees to be exposed to direct sunlight when the outside temperature exceeds 36 degrees Celsius outdoors.
In 2007, the Government of Serbia issued an instruction according to which employers are “recommended to organize work in such a way that during the hottest period of the day, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., when the temperature is above 36 degrees, they prevent heavy physical work and direct exposure to the sun, if the work process it allows”.
Orbović said that these days in companies, they usually take breaks of about two hours and use refreshing drinks, but that work is not interrupted.
He pointed out that this is not correct because the heat is abnormal, not only in the open space, but also in the halls.
That union, as he said, has been asking the state for years to declare a state of emergency when the temperatures are tropical, but it has not met with “understanding”.
Because of this, according to him, the unions were accused of making things up, and the labor ministers claimed that the workers were used to working in such conditions.
Saša Dimitrijević, in charge of safety and health at work in the UGS “Nezavisnost” union, said that no one follows the recommendation because there are no sanctions.
“The recommendation does not imply a sanction, but leaves it up to the employer to decide whether to comply with it.” And when accidents happened, almost no one answered,” said Dimitrijević, Beta reports.
He added that he saw that today the workers are working on the construction of Belgrade on the water and that he assumes that the recommendation to take a break will eventually be followed, Politika writes.
