In December 2024 and January 2025, we conducted a study that sought to begin answering this question: Are construction and marine workers aware of the safety risks posed by extreme weather events and are employers following guidelines adequately? It was a small study and we don’t have an exhaustive answer. However, we hope it points the way forward to further inquiry in this area.

Even before we began to interview workers, we hit our first low-visibility haze (pardon the expression): national guidelines. We found little that was specific with respect to extreme weather and environmental emergencies. Much seems to be left to employers making their own judgement calls.

Responses from the eight workers we interviewed corroborated this finding. They reported no pre-defined protocols at their worksites for various emergencies – our study asked specifically about heat stress, haze, storms and lighting – and a low awareness of risks and mitigative measures. Heavy rain and lightning were occurrences that quite often led to stop-work orders. But even so, respondents also spoke of being asked to carry on with raincoats or makeshift rain coverings.

Some interviewees were familiar with the term “heat stroke”, but none with the concept of “heat stress”. The former is the acute crisis event affecting a person, but the latter is, more importantly, the conditions workers should be protected against so as to avoid the acute crisis. It is concerning therefore that awareness of heat stress and what should be done by way of prevention is relatively low. For example, provision for something as simple as a cooler, shaded rest area – here the guidelines get unusually detailed, calling for fans – does not even seem to be universal.

Likewise for haze – awareness of its risks and when work should stop seems low. There were reports of masks being re-used.

The regulatory authorities put the onus on employers to educate workers and to set up mitigative measures, but judging from workers’ shallow understanding of risks and absence of counter-measures at site, coupled with the absence of detailed guidelines generally, preparedness for extreme weather events at construction sites seems inadequate.

The seven-page PDF report can be downloaded by clicking the icon at right.