Climate change has implications for UK workforce

Companies planning to deal with the effects of climate change need to do more than adapt their products and services — they should also consider how a changing climate will affect their staff and the jobs they do, according to a report from the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

“Changing Work in a Changing Climate,” published to coincide with a TUC conference on climate change, says adapting to climate change — expected to bring wetter winters, hotter summers and more frequent storms and floods — is one of the greatest challenges affecting the UK economy.

In preparing the report, TUC researchers asked both private and public sector organisations what they were doing to adapt to climate change. Many said they were beginning to think about impacts on future business planning, markets, products and services. but acknowledged they were doing little — if anything — to equip workers with the knowledge, skills and equipment to work safely and effectively in a changing climate.

Of 134 organisations interviewed, only one had given serious attention to how staff might be affected.

The TUC report finds low-income workers will suffer the most from the effects of climate change: poorer families are both more likely to be the victims of coastal flooding and less likely to be able to afford property insurance premiums in high risk areas.

The study also finds that a changing UK climate will affect emergency services and health workers who will find themselves increasingly called upon to deal with the public impacts of excessive rainfall, flooding, heat extremes and heat-related health problems.

People working in factories, outdoors or on the transport network will also have to deal with increasingly hot conditions, and employers should prepare with improved work clothing, headwear and sun creams, the report finds.

“The UK’s weather is slowly changing so that by the middle of the century our winters and summers will be very different,” said Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary. “‘Employers who take the challenge posed by climate change seriously and consider the welfare of their staff as they adapt will reap the benefits with a more motivated, highly skilled and well-equipped workforce.”