There is a special regulation for the construction industry that allows companies to give their employees time off when temperatures rise above 32.5 degrees. However, not all employers make use of this; today, for example, only a few get time off due to the heat, as an APA survey revealed. Companies are often under time pressure.
At Strabag, for example, there is no Austria-wide heat-free day for workers today. “We are under time pressure on most of our construction sites, which is why the schedule has to be carefully planned. In order to achieve the necessary construction progress, the working hours are, for example, scheduled for the morning/early followingnoon,” it said in a statement to the APA. Porr also does not give a group-wide heat-free day, the construction group told the APA. However, the site managers at the respective construction sites can decide individually whether they want to give a heat-free day today if the temperature really does reach 36 degrees. This year there have already been heat-free days at several Porr construction sites, the company said, without giving any specific figures.
Asfinag boss asked for understanding
As a major client for the construction industry, the state-owned motorway holding company Asfinag also wants to take extreme weather conditions into account by granting contractors a certain degree of flexibility in fulfilling their contracts. “This allows contractors to plan ahead and withdraw their workers from site on these hot days,” said Asfinag board director Hartwig Hufnagl in mid-June at a joint press conference with the Bau-Holz (GBH) union. At the time, the Asfinag boss asked road users for understanding if there is no progress on motorway construction sites on hot days.
When asked by APA, Asfinag was unable to provide a figure on how many construction sites are currently closed due to the heat and referred to the construction companies that have been commissioned. Asfinag has a total of over 1,500 of its own employees working on the motorways and expressways.
Work in the shadows
However, other measures are being taken to make working in the heat easier, explained both Strabag and Asfinag. At Strabag, for example, work is being encouraged in the shade or moved indoors if possible. In addition, UV protective clothing and cooling towels and vests are being made available. Asfinag also offers its employees UV protective clothing, mineral water and sunscreen and, when it is very hot, moves outdoor work – such as cutting down green waste or collecting rubbish – to the morning or evening. The motorway holding company also offers regular skin cancer screening for employees.
There is currently no official data on how many construction workers in Austria have had a day off due to the heat in recent days. According to information from the Construction Workers’ Holiday and Severance Pay Fund (BUAK), this can only be estimated in a few weeks at the earliest, because companies still have until the end of the month to report whether and how many days off due to the heat there were in the previous month, i.e. in June. However, there were six hot days in Austria in June.
866,000 euros paid out
BUAK data from 2023 shows that last year, from June to August, there were 19 days in Austria with temperatures above 32.5 degrees, on which at least one employee had a day off due to the heat. If a company then gives its workers a day off due to the heat, BUAK will continue to pay them 60 percent of their wages and refund the employer. On the busiest day of the previous year, August 22, 2023, 6,125 employees at 798 companies were given a day off due to the heat. BUAK paid out almost 168,000 euros for this. In total, BUAK paid out around 866,000 euros to the industry last year.
According to the union, construction workers still get far too few days off from the heat. Last year, only one in four construction workers had at least one day off from the heat approved by their employer throughout the whole summer, said the chairman of the Bau-Holz (GBH) union, Josef Muchitsch. This is “inhumane and not right,” said Muchitsch in a statement to the APA.
“Hard work in the heat makes you sick. Work must not make you sick,” said the union chairman. “The construction workers usually work from 6 a.m. and when the temperature reaches 32.5 degrees in the shade in the followingnoon, they have usually already put in 8 hours of hard work. That’s enough!”