‘I don’t have a choice’: Paris workers struggle under historic heatwave

It’s not even 11am and the temperature has already climbed into the 30s (over 85°F). Looking across the baking expanse of Châtelet square in the heart of Paris on Tuesday, the city is almost unrecognisable. 

The crowds have melted away. Instead, the empty square gives off a suffocating stillness, as though the city has folded in on itself and sought shelter in its own shade.

The streets and cafés are nearly deserted. Only a street-cleaner doggedly carries out his work like the last living witness of the city’s lost rhythm, broken by the weight of the heatwave.

Now in his 60s, Abdelkrim has already been working for hours as the sun creeps higher in the sky. 

“We started work at five o’clock in the morning to try and get some of our tasks done before the temperatures rose even further,” he said, taking a few moments to catch his breath in the shade. “It’s expected to reach 37°C today. The longer the day goes on, the harder and more gruelling the work becomes.”

Hostile work environment

In an age where some people can work in air-conditioned offices or leave the sweltering city to work remotely until the heatwave passes, others have no choice but to keep working under worsening conditions. For them, the summer heat is not a passing cause for complaint but a daily ordeal that puts their bodies at risk. 

France’s labour ministry said in a report released in May that heatwaves had become “a growing occupational risk” – especially in the construction, agriculture and outdoor service industries. The report noted a rise in incidents of fainting, decreased alertness and accidents linked to operating heavy machinery, leading the ministry to reinforce preventative measures during periods of high temperatures. 

For its part, the Regional Directorate for the Economy, Employment, Labour and Social Solidarity (DREETS) for the Île-de-France department in and around Paris published a statement the same month reminding employers that they have been legally obliged since July 2025 to give their employees access to fresh water, adapt their work hours as needed and limit their exposure to direct sunlight during the hottest stretches of the day.

The guide to preventing heat-related work accidents, updated in 2026 by French health and workplace safety authorities, also stresses that prolonged exposure to high temperatures can cause symptoms ranging from headaches to heatstroke, which can be a potentially serious medical emergency. Outdoor workers are among those most at risk.

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‘I don’t have a choice’

Throughout the heatwave, many labourers start their workday before the sun rises in the hope of avoiding the worst of the day’s heat. It’s not always enough.

On the Champs-Élysées, Safiullah, an Afghan gardener employed by one of the many restaurants lining the famous boulevard, struggles to keep the plants fresh in heavy and humid conditions.

“I sweat a lot and always feel tired,” he said as he dragged a hand across his forehead. “But I have no choice. My social circumstances, my professional circumstances, mean I have to keep working, whatever the conditions. I’m just trying to get by, day after day.”

Shade is even harder to come by among the concrete-and-steel construction sites rising up across the city. Alexandre, a worker from Georgia, said that working under the sun could be brutal. 

“The heat is extremely strong and the work sometimes becomes almost unbearable,” he said. “We try to cool down by splashing water over ourselves, and we start as early as six o’clock in the morning to make the most of the relative coolness of the early hours. But in the end, we have no choice but to keep going.”

In a statement published earlier in June, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) union estimated that the lack of sufficient restrictions continued to expose thousands of construction workers to “barely tolerable” working conditions.

The union stressed that heatwaves could no longer be seen as the exception in France but the reality, with long-term repercussions for the country’s working conditions.

State of emergency

France’s healthcare system is trying to prepare itself for this new reality. Faced with mounting pressure on emergency rooms caused by extreme heat, the Greater Paris University Hospitals network said it was installing more air-conditioning units, fans and misters, improving temperature monitoring in hospital rooms, and setting up air-conditioned “refuge areas” in senior facilities and long-term care centres.

Official figures show a spike in emergency room visits since the start of the week. On the night of the annual Fête de la musique outdoor music festival on Sunday, the number of people taken to emergency rooms in and around the capital was almost double the daily average, a spokesperson for the hospitals network said. Paramedics received over 30 percent more calls compared with the previous week.

On a quiet Paris street, Youssef continues his work as a street-cleaner in a city wilting under the summer heat. 

“I’ve just come back from holiday and I wish I’d stayed a bit longer,” he said. “It’s a good thing the summer holidays are coming up. I try to take regular breaks, sometimes sitting in a café or somewhere with air conditioning to recharge my batteries a bit, and I drink cold drinks to help me get through the rest of the day.”

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On the other side of the road, Paul, a postman, is struggling to push his mail cart along. A bottle of water and a wet towel are his sole arms against the heat. He said it wasn’t enough. 

“It would be useful to provide more portable fans or other ways of cooling down, as well as bicycles better suited to when it gets so hot,” he said.

As smothering temperatures drive more people indoors, the delivery drivers that hurtle every day through the Paris streets are more overworked than ever. 

Ahmed, originally from the Ivory Coast, leans on his bike outside a fast-food restaurant in Paris’s 2nd arrondissement (district) as he waits for the staff to prepare the order.    

“I work from nine in the morning until midnight, more or less,” he said. “I’ve got no choice. I don’t have a residence permit, and if I stop working, I risk ending up on the streets. My family depends on me.” 

He looks exhausted.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m suffocating, so I look for a cool, shady spot before I keep going,” he said. “I don’t want to go through what happened to some of my friends, who ended up in the emergency room because of this heatwave.”

This article has been translated from the original in Arabic.