In response to ever more intense and frequent heat waves, Austria will introduce a revolutionary Heat Protection Ordinance, set to take effect on January 1, 2026. This fresh regulation represents a major milestone that now protects employees from excessively high temperatures while they work outdoors. It aims to introduce clear, binding requirements that now safeguard the health of workers who, in the past, might have been exposed to dangerously hot conditions without much in the way of provisions or protection.
Key Components of the Heat Protection Ordinance
The following rules are protected by law from january 1st, 2026:
1. Required Heat Safety Plans:
When temperatures exceed 30 degrees Celsius, employers will be legally bound to carry out a heat safety plan. They must ensure that the plans are accessible to all employees, no matter where they work, whether in the office or out on a construction site. Plans must offer clear and easy-to-follow instructions for what to do if heat affects any employee.
2. Range of Protective Measures:
The ordinance sets forth a hierarchy of protective measures:
Technical and organizational measures: Employers must take sensible steps to reduce in inclement heat. They might reschedule work to avoid hot periods, reduce physical work intensity, offer shaded work locations and move work to shaded areas where possible.
Personal protection: When technical measures alone cannot do the job, employers must issue personal protective equipment. This should include light, breathable clothing, head coverings, cooling garments and high-quality sunscreen.
3. Cooling Requirements for Equipment:
Crane cabins and self-propelled work vehicles must be retrofitted with cooling or climate-control systems. This follows reports of extremely high, unsafe temperatures recorded inside this equipment. Employers are given transition periods to make these necessary upgrades.
4. Inspection and Enforcement:
The law gives the labor inspectorate the authority to conduct routine and focused inspections, ensuring that businesses comply with plans to protect workers and with safety measures. When companies are found to be in violation of the law, they face the kinds of hard-hitting consequences and sanctions that make them pay attention and take this law seriously. Those consequences push employers to plan in a way that is not just reactive, something that is particularly relevant given the nature of heat waves.
5. Health & Welfare Provisions:
Accessible drinking water is necessary, and it has to be of serviceable quality. This means it has to be potable and, in some cases, good-tasting, as that will encourage some workers to drink on the job. Not all jobs are conducive to frequent breaks. That fact led us to conclude, however, that some jobs are more conducive to that than others. Health and welfare provisions, in general, need to be geared more toward those in the most dangerous circumstances.
Broader Implications and Discussions
More and more, scientific and societal concern is focusing on the impact of climate change. This is especially true regarding how changes in our climate affect the health of people who work in a variety of occupations. Experts and representatives from labor unions are sounding alarms and painting dire scenarios. They say that the unfolding meteorological changes has already begun to harm and will increasingly hurt the health of workers.
Advocates emphasize that the kind of workplaces we work in indoors—like offices, factory halls, classrooms, and healthcare facilities—are still not adequately covered. The new law applies only to outdoor jobs, but it is not the only move afoot to secure protections for indoor workers. Labor organizations that work with these federations pledge to continue to take care of comprehensive safeguards, regardless of where people work.
The Heat Protection Ordinance is widely perceived as a major step in the right direction and a template for other nations dealing with the same climate-related workplace hazards. It makes things clear when it comes to employer obligations and sets out in no uncertain terms the rights of workers to health and safety in the face of extreme weather. It also represents a nascent new era of kinds of occupational protection that the climate crisis demands.
To summarize, the Heat Protection Ordinance of 2026 in Austria will greatly enhance the safety and working conditions of employees who work outdoors. It will do that by establishing standards of action that both employers and the state will have to follow to ensure the safety of those employees. The new law could serve as a model for other countries.