Your employer (school/catering contractor) has a legal responsibility to review risk assessments (RAs) in response to the heat warnings triggered by a national emergency being declared for Red warning areas on Monday and Tuesday. The RA must include not just the school/kitchen but also the risks involved in your travel to and from the workplace. If the school intends to open then the employer has to set out the specific additional measures they will take to keep staff and pupils safe in the RA and share it with you in advance.
Kitchen staff obviously operate in a hot environment, not just from the ovens and other cooking equipment (which should all be under extraction hoods to remove steam and heat) but also from dishwashers (which are often not under hoods but do generate high humidity and heat). Add to this the heat from the wearing of aprons/chef coats etc for food safety and hygiene reasons which will also affect the body’s ability cool itself.
The guidance below from the HSE adds more about ventilation requirements included cooling air to balance the overall room temperature:
Some schools that are opening will be wisely moving to a cold menu for these days to avoid the need for cooking which would increase temperatures in the kitchens.
Whilst there is currently no maximum workplace temperature, the law does state: “During working hours, the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings shall be reasonable”, so employers need to take all reasonable steps to achieve a temperature which is as close as possible to comfortable.
More information is available for members here: https://www.unison.org.uk/…/amber-and-red-heat-warnings/.
