I recently read an article about various employees quitting their job at a fast food restaurant after being forced to work for 4 months without a/c.
- I personally could not imagine going to work, in a uniform that is most likely pants, working around hot grills and fryers plus being expected to continue working! The article stated that the outside temperatures were in the 90’s everyday while the a/c was off.
This puts the employees at risk for heat related illnesses such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion. I remember when I first started teaching at our school, the a/c barely worked in the first classroom they assigned me to. I was teaching in July in the south, where temperatures were in the 100’s with high humidity. The a/c would only come on for about five minutes an hour and then came on always when the school day was over. I also could not open the windows. I brought the complaint to my principal’s secretary and she immediately provided for me to temporarily transport classrooms until the school district’s air conditioning professionals could repair the issue. If I was forced to stay in that hot classroom, that would have been unsafe for both the students and I. It is unfair for employees to be forced into working in dangerous conditions without a/c. If the manager of the company is not able to repair the a/c complication themselves, they should call an air conditioning business immediately to repair it. If for some reason there is a delay in the air conditioning business coming out, the company should temporarily close until everything is fixed. It is not worth potentially risking an employee’s life.