The Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation informs you that the Department of Meteorology has issued an orange warning of danger level.
The Department of Labour Inspection (TEE), the competent authority for occupational safety and health issues, has also issued a relevant announcement for the suspension of some outdoor work for today, Thursday July 24, 2025.
The announcement of the Technical Chamber is as follows .
Therefore, between the hours of 12:00-16:00 and if the warning is in force, the following works should be interrupted:
- all outdoor heavy and moderate work, and
- the transport of goods and/or the delivery of goods using two-wheeled vehicles (e.g. motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles) or personal mobility devices (scooters, e-scooters), including the transport and/or delivery of goods/food/mail and/or other activities.
It is clarified that the warning at the orange danger level and the interruption of work concerns the interior (areas with an altitude of less than 300 meters, which are more than 10 kilometers from the coastline) and the higher mountainous areas (mountainous areas with an altitude of more than 1150 meters).
For any other case (light work and in areas where the orange risk level does not apply) the necessary measures recorded in the Code of Practice for Thermal Stress of Workers should be taken.
It is reminded that based on the Occupational Safety and Health (Code of Practice for Thermal Stress of Workers) (Amending Decree) of 2023, regardless of organizational and technical measures taken, in any case of a warning issued by the Department of Meteorology for extremely high temperatures, the following are applied to the areas of validity of the warning:
(i) At the red hazard level, it is required that all outdoor heavy and moderate work be interrupted during the hours when the warning is in force.
(ii) At the orange risk level, it is required that all outdoor heavy and moderate work be interrupted between the hours of 12:00-16:00, provided that the warning is in force.
(iii) At the red and orange risk level, it is required that the transport and/or delivery of products with the use of two-wheeled vehicles or personal mobility devices, such as the transport and/or delivery of products/food/mail, be interrupted between the hours of 12:00 and 16:00, provided that the warning is in force.
It is noted that in order to deal with the thermal stress of workers in indoor or outdoor spaces, the provisions of the Code of Practice for Thermal Stress of Workers (revised version 2020) should be applied.
The most basic obligation of Employers and self-employed persons is to carry out measurements of the parameters that contribute to the thermal load, i.e. the ratio of air temperature and relative humidity, and accordingly the regulation of their work, in order to avoid or reduce thermal stress (e.g. alternation of heavy and light work), based on Table 12: “Imposed employment relationship – change of work/rest” and Table 13: “Gravity of Work” of the Code (p. 56 and 59 of the Code respectively).
It should be noted that according to the provisions of the Code of Practice (Table 12, p. 56), for temperature conditions of 39to 46°C, work must be interrupted when the lowest or higher percentages of relative humidity prevail, depending on the type and gravity of the work:
| Work Gravity | Temperature (in shade) oC | |||||||
| 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | |
| Light: | ≥ 53% | ≥ 48% | ≥ 43% | ≥ 39% | ≥ 34% | ≥ 29% | ≥ 25 | ≥ 23 |
| Moderate: | ≥ 48% | ≥ 43% | ≥ 38% | ≥ 34% | ≥ 29% | ≥ 26% | ≥ 22 | ≥ 19 |
| Heavily: | ≥ 42% | ≥ 37% | ≥ 33% | ≥ 28% | ≥ 25% | ≥ 21% | ≥ 18 | ≥ 15 |
Indicative examples of the severity of work (light, medium and heavy work) are recorded in the Code of Practice (Table 13, p. 59):
| Weight
Work * |
Examples |
| Light | Office work, supervision, bench work with light tools, routine driving. |
| Moderate | Fencing installation, concreting, brick building, plastering, painting, floor installation, tile installation, carving, forging, transport of light objects, carpentry, electrical work, plumbing work, mechanical work, aluminium installation, railing installation, asphalt paving works carried out by mechanical means. |
| Heavily | Intensive manual work, rebar processing and installation, assembly / disassembly of molds, digging or breaking hard materials with mechanical tools/appliances/machinery weighing more than 15 kg, asphalt paving works carried out by manual means. |
* It is understood that both the special conditions prevailing in a workplace and the intensity of each job should always be taken into account in order to decide whether a job is classified in a category.
It is also recommended that employees with health problems, such as cardiovascular or other diseases, be especially careful and consult their doctor when they may be exposed to thermal stress.
For more information, interested parties can be informed from the website of the Technical Chamber of Greece in the Thermal Stress section and/or contact the Inspectors at the local District Offices of the Department at the following telephone numbers:
Nicosia: 22879191
Limassol: 25827200
Larnaca: 24805327
Paphos: 26822715
Famagusta: 23819750
