How Do You Prevent Heat Hazards at Work? A Facility Risk Management Guide for Summer

As temperatures climb, people in the office can rely on air conditioning — but plenty of people working on your premises can't stay indoors all day: security guards, cleaning staff, delivery couriers, warehouse and logistics workers, event staff holding signs outdoors.

Whether or not these people are your direct employees, if they're working or waiting within a site you manage and a heatstroke incident occurs, the business faces more than a moral obligation — it faces real regulatory exposure.

Why this matters: the regulations are more specific than most assume

Taiwan's Occupational Safety and Health Administration updated its "Heat Hazard Prevention Guideline for High-Temperature Work" (3rd edition) in June 2025. Key points every site operator should know:

• Coverage is broad — it applies to all workers on site, not just direct employees, but also self-employed contractors and dispatched/agency workers.

• At the highest heat-hazard risk level, protective measures are a legal requirement, not just best practice — under Article 303-1 of the Occupational Safety and Health Facilities Rules (amended August 2024), employers must provide shading and cooling equipment, a shaded rest area, and adequate drinking water.

• New protections for delivery riders and other mobile, ad-hoc workers — moisture-wicking clothing, carrying enough water, using public buildings or partner stores as rest points, and a real-time health status reporting mechanism.

• Risk levels can be checked in real time using the OSH Administration's heat-hazard information portal, which links to the Central Weather Administration's hourly temperature and humidity data.

Beyond the regulation itself, a heatstroke incident on your premises — whether it involves a direct employee, an agency worker, or a delivery rider — can trigger regulatory liability, insurance claim disputes, and reputational and staffing costs that are hard to quantify after the fact.

A 4-step heat-hazard response SOP

1. Risk-level assessment — Use weather-authority temperature and humidity data to assess your site's heat-hazard level day by day, rather than relying on a gut sense of "how hot it feels."

2. Cooling and shading infrastructure inventory — Review entrances, loading areas, outdoor walkways, and waiting zones for shading, cooling equipment, and shaded rest areas.

3. Protection protocol for mobile workers — For delivery riders, sign-holders, and roving site staff, set up water points, rest areas, and a health-status reporting process.

4. Training and drills — Make sure everyone on site — including contractors, agency staff, and temporary workers — knows the warning signs of heat illness and the emergency response steps, and review this periodically.

How TTE helps

TTE is an enterprise operational risk outsourcing consultant. We work with businesses from site assessment through solution design to execution, building a complete risk-improvement plan. For a regulatory area like heat hazard prevention — where requirements are getting stricter and liability can be shared across multiple parties — we help businesses inventory current cooling and shading conditions, cross-check them against the latest regulations, and build a workable response plan with follow-up tracking.

FAQ

Q1: What kinds of sites need to follow heat hazard prevention guidance?

Any business with workers operating outdoors or in high-temperature environments — employees, self-employed contractors, or dispatched workers — regardless of industry.

Q2: What must a business do at the highest heat-hazard risk level?

Under Article 303-1 of the OSH Facilities Rules, employers must provide shading and cooling equipment, a shaded rest area, and sufficient drinking water.

Delivery riders aren't my employees — am I still responsible if one suffers heatstroke on my premises?

If a rider is working or waiting within a site you manage (an office building, retail space, or logistics hub), the site operator still needs to consider whether the environment provides the necessary cooling and rest conditions to reduce both incident and liability risk.

Q4: How do I check my site's current heat-hazard risk level?

Through the OSH Administration's heat-hazard protection information portal, which links to the Central Weather Administration's hourly temperature and humidity data for real-time risk levels.

CTA

Want to know where your site's heat-hazard gaps are? Reach out to TTE via our website or LINE (@tte.com.tw) — we'll help you start with a site assessment and build a systematic risk management framework.

Sources:

• Taiwan Occupational Safety and Health Administration, "Heat Hazard Prevention Guideline for High-Temperature Work" (3rd ed., June 2025)

• Occupational Safety and Health Facilities Rules, Article 303-1

• Central Weather Administration temperature/humidity data