Extreme weather events are no longer exceptional: heat waves, torrential rains and storms erupt more frequently, forcing companies to rethink their work organization. This post analyses how action protocols in the face of climatic contingencies are consolidating themselves as essential tools for managing situations that may affect work activity in an anticipated and orderly manner.
The increase in adverse weather phenomena (heat waves, heavy rains or storms) is beginning to be projected on the organization of work and work performance. This context presents companies with the need to articulate organizational responses that allow these situations to be managed in an orderly and predictable manner.
In this scenario, the implementation of action protocols in the face of climatic contingencies is becoming increasingly relevant, particularly in the framework of collective bargaining.
Regulatory basis
Since the end of 2025, Article 85 of the Workers’ Statute (WS), when regulating the content of collective agreements, expressly provides for the duty to address in collective bargaining the adoption of action protocols in the face of disasters and adverse weather phenomena, without prejudice to the freedom of the parties as to their final implementation.
This approach is connected to Article 14 of Law 31/1995, on the Prevention of Occupational Risks (LPRL), which establishes the employer’s duty to protect employees against occupational risks, and Article 20 LPRL, relating to emergency measures, although until the modification of the WS, the prevention of occupational risks was more focused on internal risks and not on catastrophes or adverse weather phenomena.
Emergent Practice: From Reaction to Anticipation
Progressively, both collective bargaining and company policies are beginning to include references to the management of adverse weather events.
In certain sectors (such as construction or those activities that are particularly exposed) there are precedents for clauses that provide for the adaptation of the activity or the temporary interruption of work in adverse weather conditions, initially linked to physical security, but with an increasingly broad projection.
However, the implementation of plans that ensure business continuity in the situations described is becoming more common across sectors, resulting in measures such as:
- The activation of remote work formulas on a contingent basis.
- The establishment of internal communication and incident management protocols.
- The punctual adaptation of schedules and activity according to official recommendations.
These practices reflect an evolution towards advanced risk management models, which allow the business response to be ordered and operational uncertainty to be reduced.
Impact on labor management and practical application
The existence of specific protocols contributes to providing greater clarity to business action in situations that may otherwise generate organizational doubts.
Likewise, these protocols make it possible to integrate organizational decisions in a coherent manner with the obligations in terms of occupational risk prevention, especially in cases where supervening circumstances occur.
From a practical perspective, its usefulness is evident in scenarios such as the issuance of weather alerts from a certain level linked to recommendations from the competent authorities. In these cases, having a prior protocol allows the company to activate measures such as the adaptation of remote work, the rescheduling of activity or the adoption of homogeneous solutions for the entire workforce in an agile and orderly manner.
Final considerations
Beyond their preventive dimension, these mechanisms allow companies to anticipate scenarios, order their response and improve organizational management, progressively consolidating themselves as a practice aligned with more structured and predictable models of action in the workplace. In an environment in which this type of situation can become more frequent, its consideration, from an anticipatory perspective, is presented as an element aligned with current business management trends.
