If temperatures drop below 1°C, tradespeople are advised to halt working and request longer breaks.
According to the Victorian Trades Hall Council’s health and safety requirements, outdoor workers “shall be stood by on full pay” if it gets that cold.
When the temperature drops below 9 degrees Celsius, they are also recommended to take longer breaks of up to 30 minutes per hour.
As regions of Australia are battered by below-average temperatures, rainfall, severe winds, and snow, the standards may apply to thousands of workers in the coming days.
When the temperature drops below 9 degrees Celsius, they are also recommended to take longer breaks of up to 30 minutes per hour.
As regions of Australia are battered by below-average temperatures, rainfall, severe winds, and snow, the standards may apply to thousands of workers in the coming days.
Tradespeople should take half-hour breaks every hour between 4C and 1C, 20-minute intervals between 7C and 4C, and ten minutes between 9C and 7C, according to OHS requirements.
According to Safe Work Australia, employers must provide heating, shelter, and waterproof clothing to their employees to “avoid exposure to extreme cold.”
The national rules suggest that workers should be given time to acclimate to the cold through job rotations.
Melbourne has been advised to wrap up warm this week as maximum temperatures are expected to drop three degrees below normal over the next nine days.
Temperatures will remain cold due to icy winds, which reached 111 km/h at Mount Fuller and 107 km/h at Falls Creek on Sunday.
Minimum temperatures in the eastern states will drop ‘a little bit’ below average to bring some frosty mornings of just two to three degrees.
Showers could fall across Sydney’s west on Monday morning, but clear a few hours later as residents are hit with winds reminiscent of the icy gusts last week.
