The heatwave workers 'like cats on a hot tin roof'

Breaking news from the markets: The heatwave workers 'like cats on a hot tin roof'Image caption, Temperatures passed 33C in parts of the West on Wednesday, making working outside much harder than usualByDave Harvey West of England business and environment correspondentPublished4 hours agoIf you think it is hot where you work, try fitting aluminium solar panels to a steel roof. Or carrying scaffolding tubes up a ladder in 33C (91. Or driving a bus with no air conditioning.

Ben Harrison, founder of a Gloucestershire solar panel installation firm, said his crews are "like cats on a hot tin roof". In Bristol, scaffolders started early on Wednesday, at 06:00 BST. But by midday the tubes they handle were "burning hot", and they called an early finish.

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Bus drivers said their uncooled cabs are well over 40C (104F). Yet there is no law telling employers to call a halt when the heat records are broken. So what are companies doing to keep their staff cool, and what can you do if your workplace is sweltering?

The solar installersImage caption, Technicians install solar panels to harness the sun's power, but have to endure scorching heat as they work. Ben Harrison's firm, 'Mypower' is powered by the sun, so he feels he cannot complain about it. His teams fit solar panels to the rooftops of farms and factories across the country, cutting their electric bills and carbon emissions.

But in the heatwave, there is no escape from the sun on a roof. "The temperature of that heat reflecting off the roof is significant," Harrison explained. "We need to look after those guys out there.

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Here we are in the middle of the summer, and they are like cats on a hot tin roof, dare I say it. "Like many firms, Mypower has protocols that kick in at 30C - extra water breaks, cool boxes carried onto the roof and so on. But with rooftop temperatures now well over 35C and in full sun, they have been shortening their working days this week.

The teams now start at 06:00, two hours earlier than normal, and finish at noon instead of 16:30. This, Harrison admitted, is costing the firm money. "We've had to delay a job, slow things down, and be working short time, but we've got to look after the guys that work for us.

"The scaffoldersImage caption, "We're melting, but we carry on", say scaffolders Phil, Lewis and Louis. "It's a hard game anyway what we do," scaffolder Lewis Winkworth told me. "But this heat makes it twice as hard.

Financial markets are tracking the development closely as investors assess the likely impact.