Employers are preparing for a four-day extreme heat warning across much of the UK this week, as temperatures could soar to up to 40C.
The Met Office has today issued a rare red weather warning – the highest level of alert – for parts of southern England and Wales as temperatures rise to record levels.
The red warning is in place between 9:00am on Wednesday 24 June and 9:00pm on Thursday 25 June.
The Met Office had already put an amber weather warning in place until 11:59pm on Thursday, 25 June, encompassing large swathes of England and Wales. More northerly regions are only under this warning for Wednesday and Thursday.
It said that the current highest temperature on record for June could be broken, which is 35.6C and was set in 1976.
Deputy chief forecaster Tom Crabtree said: “The combination of heat and humidity will be oppressive and bring impacts across society from public health and infrastructure, to power and water supplies.”
He added that consecutive warm nights that do not drop below 20C will make it harder for people to recover from the daytime heat, exacerbating these impacts.
The extreme temperatures will lead many employees to question whether it is legally “too hot to work” or to ask for flexible arrangements such as earlier starts.
There is no legal maximum working temperature in the UK, unlike other countries such as Spain, where the maximum legal indoor working temperature for sedentary work is 27C and 25C for light physical work.
Instead, employers are...
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