Occupational Heat Stress and Decent Work: Challenges and Prevention Strategies in the Context of Climate Change
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36125/ijoehy.v17i1.598Keywords:
climate change, occupational heat stressAbstract
Climate change is reshaping the environmental conditions under which work is performed worldwide, increasing occupational exposure to heat and generating implications for health, productivity and the achievement of decent work. This narrative review critically examines the relationship between occupational heat stress and decent work by integrating epidemiological, physiological, ergonomic and economic evidence with institutional documents and technical materials on prevention and adaptation systems. The findings indicate that heat stress produces a spectrum of acute and chronic health effects—ranging from dehydration and heat exhaustion to heat stroke and exacerbation of cardiovascular and renal diseases—and reduces work capacity through physiological constraints and behavioural adaptations. Productivity loss emerges as a central mechanism mediating the labour market impacts of heat, lowering wages and jeopardizing job security, particularly among piece-rate and informal workers. This dynamic reinforces socio-occupational vulnerabilities and territorial inequalities, challenging multiple dimensions of the International Labour Organization’s decent work framework, including occupational safety, stable income, social protection and equality. Prevention systems grounded in the hierarchy of controls are evolving toward more complex models combining technical, organizational, medical and institutional measures, including wage compensation mechanisms, meteorological alert systems and adaptive governance instruments. The review concludes that occupational heat stress constitutes an emerging determinant of labour vulnerability and that productivity represents a key pathway through which heat undermines the material foundations of decent work. Further research is needed to quantify distributive effects, evaluate policy instruments and design protective frameworks that integrate health, labour rights and climate resilience.
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