Are workers' rights protected in extreme hot wetaher?

Baku/22.06.21/Turan: Forecasters of the Ministry of Ecology issued a warning about severe heat in Baku and Absheron during the week at the level of 40-42 degrees.

What about those who work outdoors or indoors without a cooling system? What does the legislation say about this? What steps are the relevant departments taking to protect workers' rights?

Employers must take the necessary measures to protect workers if the temperature exceeds +41degrees, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. "According to Article 233 of the Labor Code, all types of work should be stopped in the open air and indoors, if there are no cooling devices," the Ministry of Labor said.

In such cases, a break must be declared in work, the duration of which is determined jointly by the employer and the trade union. According to the Code, breaks must be included in working hours.

Employers who endanger people's lives in the heat will be fined 1,000–2,000 manats. “If any employee lodges a complaint against the employer, the State Labor Inspectorate will investigate,” the ministry said.

Persons forced to work outdoors can file a complaint with the call center 142 of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.

The chair of the League for the Protection of Labor Rights of Citizens, Sahib Mammadov, told Turan that the law protects the rights of workers, but in practice, this is not respected.

“In practice, this is not done. An example is the work of laying asphalt. The temperature reaches 45 degrees, plus the heat from the asphalt, but work continues. Work is also underway at construction sites,” Mammadov said.

There is no supervisory authority. This should be done by the Labor Inspectorate, but a moratorium has been introduced on their activities (to protect entrepreneurs from unreasonable inspections). There are only 250-300 people in this service, and there are tens of thousands of jobs to be checked, Mammadov said.

Lawyer Alasgar Mammadli noted that if a state body is entrusted with a control function, then any complaint should be investigated. “The control is carried out in two forms. The first one provides for monitoring, the second one for checking complaints. But in both cases it is carried out by the labor inspectorate,” Mammadli said. — 06D-