"Bangladesh: Extreme Heat Threatens the Lives and Livelihoods of Workers", 21 July 2025

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The report documents the experiences of garment, construction, and transportation workers in Dhaka suffering from extreme heat – recounting stories in their own words – and shows how systemic labor rights abuses are making it almost impossible for these workers to protect themselves...

Climate Rights International found that many workers were forced to continue their jobs in extreme conditions. Most workers interviewed had either fainted in the heat themselves or witnessed a colleague collapse on the job. Several workers reported losing consciousness more than once. Some workers had even watched colleagues die in the heat.

Workers suffered mentally and emotionally in the extreme temperatures, reporting feelings of confusion, desperation, hopelessness, and anxiety...Several shared that they believed they might die on the job...

The harms of occupational heat exposure are being made worse by systemic labor rights abuses, many of which limit workers’ ability to protect themselves from the heat. CRI documented numerous reports of forced and unpaid overtime; denial of breaks, even in extremely hot conditions; and verbal abuse and threats in response to slowing down or attempting to rest as a result of heat exhaustion or related illness.

Many workers lacked access to toilets at their worksites, experienced pressures not to use the bathroom frequently, or feared that the water supply at work was unsafe. These challenges led some workers to deliberately restrict their water intake so as not to have to use the bathroom as frequently, leading to dehydration, urinary tract infections, and increasing their risk of other, more severe heat-related health issues.

Workers told CRI that they were afraid to speak up about these abuses...for fear of retaliation.

In combination, these abuses left workers with limited options to protect themselves from extreme temperatures and ultimately compounded the safety risks of the heat...

Some international clothing brands...continue to demand short production timelines and low prices, pushing factories to overwork employees with little regard for conditions on the ground. Almost none take effective steps to ensure their suppliers protect workers from the risks of extreme heat.

A small number of companies, including VF Corporation, the parent company of major brands like The North Face, Vans, and Timberland, have embedded heat protections into their supplier codes of conduct. Yet...it is clear that additional efforts are needed...CRI spoke with workers who claimed their factories supplied a number of brands, including VF, H&M, C&A, Walmart, Primark, and New Look, that are taking at least some steps intended to protect workers from hot workplace conditions. All of those workers told CRI that, despite the measures brands are taking, they continue to suffer in the heat...

CRI spoke with workers from foodpanda...who described the physical, emotional, and financial hardship of delivery work in extreme heat conditions. Construction companies in the city are similarly failing to protect workers from rising temperatures, and failing to provide safe water and bathroom access at job sites...

...the Bangladeshi government needs to strengthen climate and labor protections, including for the informal sector, through measures such as developing and enforcing a national standard for heat management in the workplace...

At the same time, multinational companies need to take responsibility for climate-proofing their supply chains and ensuring safe conditions for the workers they rely on...