Keep your cool

by David Kirner, Adelaide

Keep your cool is a brochure produced by the CFMEU Federated 
Furnishing Trades Society (FFTS) Division in a campaign for an award 
variation to the South Australian glass and furniture awards to provide 
protection for factory workers from heat stress.

It has been distributed to over 2,000 industry workers.

Working under heat wave conditions has become a big issue, especially this 
summer when temperatures in SA reached record levels.

Some workers were protected by EBA's and in-house agreements, whilst others 
were unable to obtain any respite from the heat.

Mr Steve Rowe, SA State Secretary of the union, said that someone was going 
to die at their machine due to unreasonable demands made by employers for 
workers to keep producing in the heat.

As an example, Mr Rowe cited an incident when at a factory in Edwardstown 
temperatures were recorded at over 50 degrees and the workers were 
pressured to continue working.

The "keep your cool" brochure provides information on the dangers of heat -
- fatigue, reduced ability to concentrate, aggravation of pre-existing 
illnesses, heat stroke, fainting and vomiting — all increasing the risk of 
accident.

It provides a number of useful policy points for adoption in the workplace.

Employers have a number of legal obligations to workers to provide safe 
conditions.

"Don't suffer in silence", says the brochure. "Don't be bullied and pay 
limited attention to people who say it costs too much to fix or that it 
doesn't matter. What they mean is they don't really care about you."

Mr Rowe said that "The CFMEU FFTS Division will act to vary the state glass 
and furniture award to ensure no workers works in heat or in conditions 
beyond 36 degrees."

Mr Rowe stressed that the "only real solution, where bad employers are 
forcing workers to work in extreme heat, is to legislate a maximum 
temperature beyond which workers could not be asked to work".