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PROBLEM-:
According to new
research on the effect of heat
stress on workers and manufacturing output,
manufacturing plants lose about 2% of their revenue for every one degree Celsius
increase in annual temperature, with labor-intensive plants losing the most.
The study's goal was to understand and quantify the role of heat stress in mediating
the temperature-output relationship, which was conducted by the University of
Chicago's Energy Policy Institute. This was accomplished using primary and secondary
data from over 58,000 factories across India.
High temperatures have two effects on factory workers, according to the study: they may produce less while at work and are absent more frequently. Workers in three different manufacturing settings were found to have the two channels: cloth weaving, garment sewing, and steel products. Individual and team output decreased on hot days, as well as in weeks with hotter days. Heat stress was found to be an important underlying cause of non-agricultural gross domestic product declines in high temperatures, according to the study.
While heat stress is not the sole cause of country-level decreases in manufacturing output during hot years, it does suggest that it is a much more important mechanism than previously thought, according to the study. While the study focused on Indian manufacturing plants, the authors argue that because heat stress is a universal physiological mechanism, it has implications for any industry that relies on labour, such as construction or services.
According to the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute: The impact of high temperatures on reduced crop yields has been well documented. This paper demonstrates how rising temperatures can harm economic output in other sectors by lowering human labour productivity. When already hot days become even hotter, the damage is magnified. If India is to achieve its goal of becoming a manufacturing powerhouse with cheap labour, it must consider how to adapt to a warmer world. While workplace climate control reduces productivity losses, absenteeism remains high, owing to workers' continued exposure to high temperatures at home and outside. Furthermore, the high cost of climate control limits its use.
The authors also looked at how lagged temperatures affected productivity and absenteeism in the workplace. They discovered the most pronounced effects in weaving workers, who saw a 2.7 percent decrease in contemporaneous daily output for each additional day above 35 degrees Celsius in the preceding six days.
Workers' responses to incentives were also investigated; monetary disincentives were found to weaken the temperature-absenteeism link. "We find that the number of paid absences increases with both contemporaneous and lagged temperatures in climate-controlled garment plants in the NCR," according to the study. "However, the probability of unpaid leave does not change with temperature." A survey of 150 plants in the diamond processing industry in Surat was also conducted to assess the effects of climate control measures. "We discovered that air conditioning was used selectively in rooms with labor-intensive activities that are critical in determining diamond quality,or the simplest form is to provide industrial fans to control the temperature, which will gradually solve the problem" it said.
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