IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v33y2022i2p256-271.html

‘Zonked the hell out’: Climate change and heat stress at work

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Humphrys
  • James Goodman
  • Freya Newman

Abstract

Climate change is most directly felt by people who cannot escape its impacts, including workers whose source of livelihood may put them directly at risk from high heat. Research on these impacts for Australian workers, especially the sociopolitical determinants of effective workplace heat management, remains limited. This article presents findings from a national research project that investigated these issues in collaboration with the Australia-based United Workers Union. It reports on the experiences of members exposed to high heat, explores how they address heat stress and how they relate this to climate change. The article expands understanding of the impacts of workplace heat, especially for indoor workers and those in lower paid jobs, through a focus on how workers articulate their experiences and understand and exercise their agency at work. JEL codes: Q54, J28

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Humphrys & James Goodman & Freya Newman, 2022. "‘Zonked the hell out’: Climate change and heat stress at work," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 33(2), pages 256-271, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:33:y:2022:i:2:p:256-271
    DOI: 10.1177/10353046221092414
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10353046221092414
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/10353046221092414?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elling, Ray H., 1989. "The political economy of workers' health and safety," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 1171-1182, January.
    2. A. M. Vicedo-Cabrera & N. Scovronick & F. Sera & D. Royé & R. Schneider & A. Tobias & C. Astrom & Y. Guo & Y. Honda & D. M. Hondula & R. Abrutzky & S. Tong & M. de Sousa Zanotti Stagliorio Coelho & P., 2021. "The burden of heat-related mortality attributable to recent human-induced climate change," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(6), pages 492-500, June.
    3. Park, R. Jisung & Pankratz, Nora & Behrer, A. Patrick, 2021. "Temperature, Workplace Safety, and Labor Market Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 14560, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Ed Day & Sam Fankhauser & Nick Kingsmill & Hélia Costa & Anna Mavrogianni, 2019. "Upholding labour productivity under climate change: an assessment of adaptation options," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 367-385, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giovanni Marin & Aung Tun Oo, 2025. "Sectoral exposure to heat: heterogeneous impacts of extreme heat on workplace accidents in Italy," SEEDS Working Papers 1325, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised 2025.
    2. Federica Alfani & Vasco Molini & Giacomo Pallante & Alessandro PalmaGran, 2024. "Job displacement and reallocation failure. Evidence from climate shocks in Morocco," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 51(1), pages 1-31.
    3. Agarwala, Matthew & Burke, Matt & Klusak, Patrycja & Mohaddes, Kamiar & Volz, Ulrich & Zenghelis, Dimitri, 2021. "Climate Change And Fiscal Sustainability: Risks And Opportunities," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 258, pages 28-46, November.
    4. Matteo Picchio & Jan C. Ours, 2025. "High temperatures and workplace injuries," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 69(4), pages 2339-2369, October.
    5. Catarina Midões & Enrica De Cian, 2025. "Heat and well-being in the Old Continent," Working Papers 2025: 03, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    6. Wan Ting Katty Huang & Pierre Masselot & Elie Bou-Zeid & Simone Fatichi & Athanasios Paschalis & Ting Sun & Antonio Gasparrini & Gabriele Manoli, 2023. "Economic valuation of temperature-related mortality attributed to urban heat islands in European cities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Alberto Ponso & Angelo Bonfitto & Giovanni Belingardi, 2023. "Route Planning for Electric Vehicles Including Driving Style, HVAC, Payload and Battery Health," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-22, June.
    8. Lavy, Victor & Rachkovski, Genia & Yoresh, Omry, 2025. "Heads Up : Does Air Pollution Cause workplace Accidents?," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1575, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    9. Qiu, Xincheng & Yoshida, Masahiro, 2024. "Climate Change and the Decline of Labor Share," IZA Discussion Papers 17485, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Picchio, Matteo & van Ours, Jan C., 2024. "The impact of high temperatures on performance in work-related activities," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    11. Xie, Victoria Wenxin, 2024. "Labor market adjustment to extreme heat shocks: Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 266-283.
    12. Kerstin Katharina Zander & Duy Nguyen & Stephen Thomas Garnett, 2025. "A decade of German heatwave data reveals shift in local impact perception," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 30(5), pages 1-26, June.
    13. Marcantonio, Richard, 2024. "Environmental violence and enterprise: The outsized role of business for environmental peacebuilding," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 685-698.
    14. Giacomo Falchetta & Enrica De Cian & Filippo Pavanello & Ian Sue Wing, 2024. "Inequalities in global residential cooling energy use to 2050," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    15. Nickel, Christiane & Kilponen, Juha & Moral-Benito, Enrique & Koester, Gerrit & Ciccarelli, Matteo & Enders, Almira & Holton, Sarah & Landau, Bettina & Venditti, Fabrizio & Bobeica, Elena & Brand, Cla, 2025. "A strategic view on the economic and inflation environment in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 371, European Central Bank.
    16. Marcantonio, Richard A., 2022. "Toxic diplomacy through environmental management: A necessary next step for environmental peacebuilding," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    17. Elena Paglialunga & Andrea Coveri & Antonello Zanfei, 2020. "Climate change and inequality in a global context. Exploring climate induced disparities and the reaction of economic systems," Working Papers 2003, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2020.
    18. Wan, Qilong & Miao, Xiaodong & Afshan, Sahar, 2022. "Dynamic effects of natural resource abundance, green financing, and government environmental concerns toward the sustainable environment in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. Aparajita Dasgupta & Devvrat Raghav, 2024. "Rural Roads, Climate Change, and the Dynamics of Structural Transformation: Evidence from India," Working Papers 122, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    20. Piringer, Niklas & Vardanega, Gabrielle & Thiede, Brian C., 2022. "Climate Exposures and Household Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa," SocArXiv nbwf6, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:33:y:2022:i:2:p:256-271. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.