Can faulty air conditioning during hot weather be the basis for refusing to perform work using a company vehicle?
Not so long ago, air conditioning in the car was a luxury available only in higher trim options. Today, air conditioning in the car is already available in the basic version. This applies not only to private cars, but also to company cars. In hot weather, while performing professional duties, air conditioning is an element that ensures work comfort. It also significantly affects work safety by protecting the employee from overheating.
It is the duty of every employer to provide employees with broadly understood work tools. Different equipment will apply to a blue-collar employee, e.g. a construction welder, and different to an office worker performing his duties at the employer’s seat. Still other tools and workplace equipment should be provided to a mobile worker whose duties require constant movement.
In the case of the latter employee, the key work tool will be a car used for business purposes. The Labor Code states that the machines and other technical devices used must ensure safe and hygienic working conditions. In particular, they must protect the employee against:
- injuries,
- exposure to hazardous chemicals,
- electric shock,
- excessive noise,
- the action of mechanical vibrations and radiation and
- harmful and dangerous effects of other factors of the working environment.
It is no different with cars. If the employer decides to entrust the employee with a car for business purposes, the technical condition of such a vehicle cannot be accidental.
It may happen that the employer’s car, lent to the employee for business purposes, turns out to be out of order. In such a situation, doubts may arise as to whether the employee driver, being aware of the faulty air-conditioning system, has the right to refuse the employer to carry out the official order in the scope of moving the said vehicle.
Referring to the above dilemma, it should be noted that the regulations in the field of technical occupational safety do not regulate the issue of providing employees with air conditioning in motor vehicles. Thus, the employer has the right to equip the employee with a car that has air conditioning, as well as a car that does not have air conditioning.
Thus, an employee driver who owned a car with air-conditioning and who is assigned a car without air-conditioning cannot refuse the employer:
- going on a business trip in such a car or
- regular use of it as part of a mobile workplace.
However, the situation may be different if the air conditioning system has failed. Then it should be assumed that the employee driver has no possibility to refrain from work, citing a reduction in driving comfort in hot weather, associated with a higher than usual temperature in the car cabin.
However, it is possible to refuse to use a car with faulty air conditioning. However, this is only possible until it is clearly established that the fault in no way affects the safety of using the car.
Until such arrangements are made, it can be assumed that the employee driver has the right to refrain from using the said car. This can be justified by the fact that both the employee and the employer are usually not experts in assessing the safety of using a vehicle with a faulty air conditioning system.
