Heat stress and social dialogue in the Netherlands: findings from the ADAPTHEAT-project

Dutch occupational safety and health (OSH) legislation is characterized by its reliance on very general legal stipulations. The idea is that these broad, goal-oriented provisions leave room for tailor-made regulations at the company or sectoral level, leading to more effective risk management. This also goes for OSH legislation pertaining to heat at work. The general legal provisions on heat at work are to be fleshed out via social dialogue, in either collective labor agreements or 'OSH catalogues' at the sectoral level, or more specific arrangements at the company level. Analysis of all relevant labor agreements and 'OSH catalogues' reveals that these do seldom give proper guidance in managing heat at work. Most importantly, hardly any of these collective agreements contain a clear, science-based threshold for working in heat. Risk-assessment tools too are rather poor, and the proposed risk management measures in the 'OSH catalogues' do seldom follow the industrial hygiene strategy (prevention first, personal protection as a final resort). The Dutch approach of social dialogue at a sectoral level or company therefore is not very effective. Also, negotiating OSH standards at many different is not very efficient, and is at odds with common notions such as legal certainty, legal equality and transparency.