CAMPAIGN Health and safety


n By Hajera Blagg


Unite demands a max working temperature. Meanwhile, we meet two welders


Delegates at this year’s Unite policy conference in July shone a spotlight on a theme that will impact all workers – the climate crisis. They collectively passed multiple motions calling for immediate action to protect workers. After all, as both extreme temperatures and extreme weather events such as storms become the norm across the globe, the health impacts on workers will become yet more serious.


Construction workers are among those who will bear the brunt of working in hotter temperatures as climate change accelerates – and perhaps more so than any workers are welders, who have long had to contend with toiling in high temperatures.


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[Previously], we told our supervisors that it’s getting over 33 degrees here, but they just dismissed our concerns. They said, ‘we can’t do anything about the weather – you’ve just got to get on with it’


Ross, Unite rep and welder


buildingWORKER spoke to Unite reps Aaron and Ross, both experienced welders, who described what it’s like regularly labouring in unbearably hot temperatures often exceeding 35°C and even 40°C.


Aaron, who has worked as a welder for nearly 20 years, said it’s a big challenge to keep cool on the job, mostly because they’ve got to be covered in layers of bulky equipment to protect from burns and other welding hazards.


“You’re just sweating constantly, so much so that it can affect your vision,” he noted. “In the summer, it’s especially hard because you’ve got no shelter and the sun’s just beating down on you. And then you’ve got the heat coming off what you’re welding, so you’ve got it both ways and you’re just stuck in the middle.


“I’ve been on sites where they put tents up to protect you from the sun, but if there’s no breeze blowing through, it just turns into a greenhouse,” he added. “I’m honestly surprised I’ve never had heat stroke over the years.”


Ross, who’s been a welder for 15 years, agreed.


“Working in the heat can be totally exhausting – it really affects your ability to think straight,” he explained.


24 unite buildingWORKER Autumn 2025


“When you’re putting the tooling equipment in before you’re fully welding, you really need to be switched on when you’re building to tight specifications. But when you’re struggling in the heat, it’s very easy to make mistakes.”


Aaron also highlighted how extreme heat can take a huge mental toll.


“You can’t concentrate; you get irate and you can lash out at your work colleagues. You take that home with you and you might lash out there, too. If there’s a heatwave, you’re not only struggling at work, but then you go home and you can’t sleep properly either.”


Aaron and Ross work on a large construction site where health and safety standards are exceptionally high. They both report that this has made a huge positive difference in their work, but they worry for welders who work on smaller sites – like they both previously have – where health and safety is often an afterthought.


“In a previous job, we had a temperature gauge and we told our supervisors that it’s getting over 33 degrees here, but they just dismissed our concerns,” Ross noted.


“They said, ‘Look, we can’t do anything about the weather – you’ve just got to get on with it.”


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