My office too cold

I am employed at a certain company in Tanzania. As in other places, especially Dra es Salaam, where most offices use air conditioners (ACs), our company also uses ACs. We are sharing office with a number of people, but unfortunately I find the office too cold. To the contrary, others find it warm. This has made me uncomfortable but I cannot do anything. What does the law say?

BR, Dar es Salaam

Thank you for this question, which appears to be a workplace-safety issue. Although it appears to be a safety issue at workplace, the law does not appear to prescribe one exact office temperature. The Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2003 (the Act) places responsibility on employers to provide a workplace that protects employees’ health and safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA) specifically conducts workplace inspections, risk assessments and industrial-hygiene measurements.

For temperature, the important principle is that the working environment should be maintained at a reasonable and healthy level of comfort, with appropriate ventilation or cooling or other measures, where necessary. This is also consistent with the International Labour Organisation’s guidance that as comfortable and steady a temperature as circumstances permit should be maintained in all premises used by workers.  It should be noted that the fact that your colleagues feel warm while you feel cold does not automatically mean the employer is breaking the law. People have different temperature tolerances.

However, if the air conditioning is consistently so cold that you cannot work comfortably, you are entitled to raise it as a workplace health and safety concern. An appropriate approach, in our view, would be to ask the management to measure and record the actual room temperature, rather than relying on everyone’s subjective feeling; or ask whether the AC setting can be adjusted or whether airflow can be redirected away from you. A unilateral tactic would be to adjust seating arrangements so that you are not directly in front of the AC. If management refuses to address a genuinely uncomfortable or potentially unhealthy environment, you can raise the matter through the relevant Authority, OSHA in this regard. You might also want to consider wearing layered clothing to assist in keeping you warm.