The Italian municipality of Pesaro will shift its outdoor municipal workers’ start time to 6:30 a.m. from Wednesday, ending shifts by 12:30 p.m. to avoid the most dangerous heat, a measure triggered by a regional ordinance that bans outdoor labour between 12:30 and 4 p.m. through August. The move is one of dozens of heat-protection interventions rolling out across advanced economies as a prolonged heatwave grips southern Europe and parts of Asia, forcing governments to codify what were once ad-hoc summer adjustments.

In New York City, an executive order signed by Comptroller Zohran Mamdani directs multiple agencies to produce multilingual heat-safety guidance for outdoor and indoor workers, with indoor recommendations due by 1 March 2027. The Department of Buildings must also review construction-site heat rules by the same deadline. Italy’s Council of Ministers, meanwhile, reintroduced a provision allowing firms in sectors such as construction, logistics and agriculture to access a derogation of the state wage-supplement scheme (cassa integrazione, or CIG) when temperatures exceed 35°C or high humidity makes work unsafe. The measure, inserted last-minute into an infrastructure decree, permits suspension or reduction of working hours with income support, though the final text is still under discussion and coverage for fishery workers remains unresolved.

The protections largely target employees in traditional sectors. In Malaysia, where temperatures could reach 37.5°C during the coming El Niño period, delivery riders fall outside standard labour protections because they are classified as gig workers. A survey of 51 riders found 90% reported hotter conditions, with many experiencing headaches and dizziness, yet they lack paid rest or sick leave. A legislator has called for a review of the Gig Workers Act, which came into force in March, to mandate rest breaks, heat alerts and safe waiting areas. In Australia, new rules that took effect this month make it easier for platforms to remove drivers accused of sexual misconduct, but the Fair Work Commission still ordered Uber to pay a deactivated driver A$300 per week pending appeal, illustrating the tension between safety and gig-worker income security.

Italy’s regional ordinances expose another gap: most exempt public-utility works, including road maintenance, from mandatory stoppages. Only Calabria and Campania have narrowed the exemption to truly non-deferrable emergency interventions. With the New York deadlines set for early 2027 and Italy’s decree awaiting final text and costings from the state accounting office, the immediate test is whether platform companies and public procurers will voluntarily extend heat protections to the workers currently outside the new mandates.