San Francisco Frontiers - Sensors, early starts: how Spain keeps working when heat hits

The device contains a sensor that detects body temperature. If Reina gets dangerously hot at the risk of making a potentially deadly heatstroke likelier, a red light and a sound raise the alarm.

"It's an extra layer of security. As it's supposed to go off before you have symptoms, it lets you leave wherever your place of work is, drink water, and get under the shade," Reina, 54, told AFP.

The wristbands exemplify how Spain, a country long familiar with high temperatures, is adapting the world of work as climate change makes extreme heat spells more intense, frequent and longer.

The issue has taken on greater urgency in Europe after last month's exceptional heatwave sent temperature records tumbling, was linked to thousands of excess deaths and disrupted daily life for millions on a continent where air conditioning is not widespread.

Barcelona town hall has this year distributed 1,400 heat-monitoring wristbands among its staff who work outdoors.

After Spain recorded heat-related deaths among such workers in recent years, their summer working hours have been brought forward and cut short.

They also follow a protocol that includes hydration breaks, wearing caps and a requirement not to work alone.

- 'Impossible to work' -

In Madrid, where temperatures soar past 38C during heatwaves, employees at Eli de Sousa's company start installing solar panels earlier, at 7:00 am.

"We have to stop at 1:00 pm come what may, because it's impossible to work," explained the 41-year-old Brazilian.

As well as having a small refrigerator containing water, if the heat is too intense "we stop and try to make up the time on another day", he said.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez, 56, who installs equipment on roofs for a telecommunications company, is obliged at intervals to come down to cool off and drink water.

"We who work at height have to have the harness and all the equipment," said Rodriguez as he sipped a soft drink under the shelter of his van.

"So, obviously, the time comes when you need to get down, cool off and take off the harness."

Spanish legislation from the 1990s stipulates that the maximum temperature permitted in closed workplaces is 27C.

But given a slew of recent complaints about stifling classrooms, the law is not necessarily enforced.

Labour ministry fines against companies for heat-related infractions have doubled recently, rising from 706,419 euros in 2022 to almost 1.6 million euros ($1.8 million) last year.

"In the 21st century, no one should fall ill or die in their workplace," far-left Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz has said.

- 'Tough it out' -

In July 2022, a 60-year-old street cleaner in Madrid died of heatstroke, an episode that "galvanised the population, society and the government", said Carmen Mancheno, work health coordinator at the CCOO union.

The leftist government passed a law in 2023 that obliges employers "to adapt their working day to prevent outdoor tasks being carried out in the hours of greatest exposure (to the heat)", Mancheno explained.

Employers must also have a protocol to adapt working conditions if the state weather agency issues its two highest heat alerts.

Urban cleaning services and the construction sector apply the rules widely, but they are followed "little" in other areas, said Mancheno.

The government created a "climate leave" after deadly 2024 floods in the eastern region of Valencia, authorising absences from work during extreme weather events.

However, the legislation is hard to apply during heatwaves because high temperatures do not make it impossible to go to work, said Mancheno.

For 64-year-old Fernando Garcia, who always keeps open his ice cream stall in central Madrid, there is only one solution.

"Drink water, sprinkle yourself with water, and tough it out... there's no other way."

J.Martinez--SFF