As I watched the fires in Los Angeles unfold in January this year, my mind of course reflected on the 1999-2000 Black Summer bushfires in Australia. Both these seasons have wrought significant damage to humans and other animals, and to land, infrastructure and property. There has been a huge personal, collective and financial toll involved. Climate change is of course driving these unprecedented events, and there are significant health impacts for people.

During these disasters we are conscious of the direct risk posed to fire fighters, but the air pollution generated presents health and safety challenges for workers and others more broadly. When working hard physically in any role we of course breath more deeply, taking in more smoke and ash from the fires. Ultimately, the 2019–2020 Black Summer fire period in Australia burned 24.3 million hectares, killed or displaced 3 billion animals, and killed 33 people directly — with a further 455 people killed indirectly due to the smoke and ash pollution, which enveloped four-fifths of Australia’s population.

However, the greatest risk for workers from climate change is heat. Rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves, especially for workers exerting themselves in higher humidity, are the biggest killer and source of injury. As Jeff Goodell titled his 2023 book, The Heat Will Kill You First. Other consequences for workers from global heating include extreme weather events, increasing solar ultraviolet radiation driving skin cancer rates, vector borne disease spread, and negative mental health impacts. Many of these challenges are unprecedented.

There has been increased attention to the work health and safety (WHS) consequences of climate change in the last few years. Manal Azzi, International Labour Organization (ILO) Occupational Safety and Health Lead, has argued climate change impacts for workers ‘needs to top our list of global priorities’. Action will require national planning and action to ensure successful workplace adaptation to limit injuries and deaths. Yet, if this is correct, why does it appear so little is happening in Australia to plan for these current and emerging issues?

In a recent article for the Journal of Industrial Relations, I examine key ILO and Australian Government reports and initiatives in 2023 and 2024, to assess what action experts argue is needed and how Australia stacks up. I conclude too little is happening, and that we lack coordinated oversight and action on the current and growing risks.

The first part of my article provides an overview of two significant reports from the ILO last year — the April 2024 Ensuring Safety and Health at Work in a Changing Climate report, and the July 2024 Heat at Work: Implications for Safety and Health. A Global Review of the Science, Policy and Practice. The second section details recent Australian Commonwealth Government high-level strategies, climate change statements, and other efforts in relation to WHS and climate change.

The ILO argues that given the multifaceted and widespread impacts of climate change on work, there will need to be new regulations, policies and action plans in every country and across a wide range of activities, as well as public health education initiatives for specific industries and the general population. This is not happening here. Although Australia is better placed than some countries to deal with these issues — given its relative higher levels of public and private wealth, embedded regulatory processes, skills and infrastructure in areas like fire prevention, and well-developed health services — at the same time much of Australia is at high risk, and some sections of the far north at extreme risk in relation to occupational heat. The ILO also found that in Asia and the Pacific, where Australia is located, exposure to excessive occupational heat is above the global average. The ILO’s Heat at Work report notes, and it is the case Australia at this time, that relying on established WHS laws and regulations to deal with workplace hazards being exacerbated (and altered) by climate change means relying on provisions that are often general and inadequate as a response to the challenges of a heating planet.

My analysis finds little evidence of coordinated planning by Safe Work Australia, the lead agency for WHS nationally, regarding the WHS impacts of climate change. Although WHS and climate change are integrated somewhat into other Commonwealth climate change planning documents and strategies, this is not being done in a coordinated or comprehensive manner — with the repercussions of climate change for workers often just noted in passing, with no real plan or assessment of what is needed.

Australia has also been slow to progress action in comparison to other highly industrialised countries. As Climate Scientist Joëlle Gergis notes, despite ‘Australia being one of the most climate change-exposed countries in the world, our political response to addressing the issue has a long and chequered history of delay and denial’. We live with the legacy of inaction, including in relation to the impacts for workers.

If Australia is to protect workers, Governments will need to act on the guidance from the ILO and international academic and policy experts, and engage in national, industry and local level planning. A fragmented approach to WHS and climate change must be avoided, with a designated lead agency moving to effectively progress work in this area. That agency must ensure intra department coordination and a whole of government approach across departments and agencies — including WHS, industrial relations, health, environment and climate change. With the current approach to climate change planning for workers in Australia, WHS is almost an afterthought and is falling through the gaps.

This article summarises the findings of Elizabeth Humphrys’ recent publication ‘Inertia in transformed times: Work health and safety amid climate change’ in the Journal of Industrial Relations, which you can read open access (no paywall).