How to protect your employees from the cold?

As an employer, you have an obligation to take all necessary measures to ensure safety and protect the physical and mental health of your employees. You must therefore identify and reduce as much as possible the occupational risks to which your employees are exposed, including the risks related to extreme cold waves (frostbite, drowsiness, cramps, hypothermia….).

To help you do this, the public authorities have published a “National Guide to the Prevention and Management of Health and Social Impacts Related to Cold Waves”. This guide recommends, in particular:
• To arrange workstations by providing appropriate heating of the work premises, access to hot drinks, a means of drying and/or storing a change of clothes, and aids to manual handling to reduce the physical workload and perspiration.
• To organize work, for example by limiting working time in the cold and by organizing appropriate breaks and additional recovery time after exposure to exceptionally low temperatures.
• To provide employees with clothing and equipment against the cold, which must be compatible with the personal protective equipment usually used.

Note: These instructions concern employees who work in premises (warehouses) or outside (construction, transport industry, outdoor displays of retail shops…). They also apply in sectors where employees must, for their professional activity, use a vehicle in icy or snowy conditions.

To best anticipate cold waves, a weather vigilance system has been put in place. It consists of a double national vigilance card (one for the day and the other for the next day) and a monitoring bulletin updated at least twice a day at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. These tools are available on the Météo-France website.