How cold is too cold to go into work under Irish law?

It comes as temperatures plummet.

The mercury has plummeted and your breath now hangs thick in the air, getting out of your warm bed is a nightmare and the office being colder than a snowman’s carrot doesn’t help.

Down the years, many of us will have sat in freezing offices and asked ourselves, how cold is too cold to work?

Well, we have the answer!

As reported by the Mirror, Employment law and HR experts at Peninsula Ireland have clarified that, currently, there is no specific minimum temperature outlined by legislation for most workers, however employers do have an obligation to make sure that the temperature is appropriate.

This also goes for those who work manual jobs, the temperature must be ‘appropriate for human beings’.

Employers are obliged to ensure the health and safety of employees so the working environment has to be reasonable, even though there is no law governing temperature.

According to the Irish Statute Book “the temperature in rooms containing workstations is appropriate for human beings, having regard to the working methods being used and the physical demands placed on the employees.”

They add: “For sedentary office work, a minimum temperature of 17.5°C, so far as is reasonably practicable, is achieved and maintained at every workstation after the first hour’s work.

“For other sedentary work, at every workstation where a substantial proportion of the work is done sitting and does not involve serious physical effort, a minimum temperature of 16°C is, so far as is reasonably practicable, achieved and maintained after the first hour’s work.”

Peninsula COO Moira Grassick said: “The Safety, Health, and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007 specify 17.5C as the minimum temperature for sedentary office work, or for other sedentary work that does not involve serious physical effort, a minimum temperature of 16C to be achieved and maintained after the first hour’s work.”

She added that employers should consider adding heaters into workplaces to combat the cold.

With regards to those who work hybrid or remote, Grassick said: “Employers should communicate the support options that are available to them. Some employers might introduce a contractual homeworking allowance, to provide financial assistance for employees to keep their heating on throughout the day, but this is not a legal requirement so organisations can implement schemes at their discretion. Employers can also remind their team of the Government’s Electricity Credit.”