Hardest work

Hard work during heat alerts on construction sites

The workers drink up to four liters of water a day.

(Bild: Markus Tschepp)

This is how Salzburg's construction workers feel when temperatures climb to over 30 degrees. Even in record-breaking heat, hard work has to be done when concreting, piling and hammering. Basic rule: drink, drink, drink!

Yani is tanned: He is working in one of the rare shady spots. Interior walls are being boarded on the construction site in Wals-Siezenheim. Twelve apartments are being built not far from the fire station. The schedule is tight. The shell should be completed by October. "I don't need a solarium," laughs the construction worker from Bulgaria. He doesn't mind the heat that much, he says. "I like the sun." On the new heat app from the Bau-Holz trade union, he reads: 26.4 degrees in the shade! But in the scorching sun, that can quickly be too much when it beats down mercilessly on the construction site. "It's bad when the underground garage is being excavated," explains foreman Dragan. Then when there's no fan left and the heat is almost unbearable at midday.

The golden rule: drink, drink, drink! 
Water, of course. The days of excessive beer consumption on the construction site are long gone, as everyone confirms. And Yani also applies cream when it gets too hot for protective clothing. "Otherwise it becomes dangerous for the skin," he says, aware of the increasing risk of cancer on construction sites.

Yani also gets to work in the heat.

(Bild: Markus Tschepp)

The law is full of holes. From a temperature of 32.5 degrees in the shade, employers can declare a heat-free day. However, this is used far too rarely. Last year, only 700 construction workers were able to stop their sweaty work on a total of ten heatwave days. The trade union is calling for a legal entitlement to heat-free days.

It also gets hot in Salzburg's regional hospitals 
Are air conditioners running everywhere? "We have 147 buildings and 18,000 rooms," says spokesperson Wolfgang Fürweger. Areas such as operating theaters are air-conditioned, and thick walls cool historic buildings. The number of patients suffering from heat is also not currently increasing. Fürweger: "The people of Salzburg have now learned to deal with it."