Time to bring a thermometer to the office?
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Winter (and the weather it brings with it) is for spending under your duvet, not trudging to work in the freezing cold. Have you ever wondered, when the Great British freeze sets in, just how cold is officially ‘too cold’ to be at work?
If you’ve worn your coat at your desk more than one day this week because you can’t cope with the changing seasons, we have some news that’ll probably pique your interest.
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Turns out there’s a legal requirement for bosses to do everything they reasonably can to keep the work place above a certain temperature – otherwise you have the right to pop off home, The Sun reports.
According to the Workplace Regulations, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999: ‘Employers are obliged to assess risks to health and safety and act where necessary (i.e. if the workplace temperature drops below the minimum guideline or if it is felt the temperature is too high).’
Should the office, shop floor, café, or wherever you work fall below 16 degrees, bosses should be making a big effort to get the temperature back up, according to the Approved Code of Practice. And in jobs that require more vigorous effort (i.e. those of us not chained to a desk all day), 13 degrees is deemed too low.
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Employees should also be allowed regular breaks and be able to make hot drinks on the reg in a bid to stay warm during colder periods.
(On a side note, there’s actually no legal maximum temperature for work spaces. You just have to beg for the air con to be fixed and hope for the best, we guess.)
So tomorrow, bring in a thermometer to sit on your desk and if it falls below 16, put in a call to HR.
By Lucy Abbersteen
The post This Is Officially How Cold It Has To Be To Get A Day Off Work appeared first on Look Magazine.