As everyone knows only too well - since we're already in our third heatwave this year - there's no legal maximum workplace temperature.

    Fortunately, some bosses supply bottles of iced water and cold drinks and they offer heat reliefs. At the World Cup, matches are halted so that players can take hydration breaks.

    But in many workplaces workers get no relief - the meanness of some bosses is off the scale, just like the temperature. They don't want the tiniest cut in their productivity. And no surprise there!

    The "law" on workplace temperature goes back to 1992 and only sets a lower temperature limit of 16°c, or 13° for strenuous work, and isn't legally binding - it's just a recommendation by the Health and Safety Executive. There had been heatwaves before 1992 of course. Like in 1976. But because it was hot only occasionally, bosses weren't prepared to shell out for air conditioning, and no government was going to compel them to do so. Even if controlling the temperature via AC - and other means - in all seasons, would be beneficial!

    So now, Green MP Hannah Spencer is introducing a parliamentary bill which would stipulate a maximum temperature for workers. As a former plumber herself, she knows what it's like to try to do your job in the heat... She said: "From bus and train drivers sweltering in cabins that are hotter than the soaring temperatures outside and bakers working in temperatures of over 40 degrees, to builders whose workplaces offer no respite from the heat, the government has a duty to protect all of us..."

    Well, calling on the government's "duty to protect all of us" is a bit naive. Common sense tells workers that they had best protect themselves! But still, it's something!

    In the meantime though, Unison and the Trade Union Congress have called for a maximum indoor work temperature of 30°, or 27° for strenuous work. In hospitals? On the production line? They can't be serious! Maybe these union bureaucrats were inspired by the French "code of practice", that suggests maximums of 28°c and 30°c respectively!

    Anyway workers know better than to expect bosses to provide a healthy modern, temperature- controlled environment. Not under this system! And Spencer's "law", if passed, is likely only to "recommend" that the TUC's too high 27-30% is adhered to. It's not OK, of course, but we can impose our own solution, as we always have in the past: find somewhere to cool down... outside.