Posted by David Mitchell on August 30, 2002 at 13:04:05:

The newest Shiftwork Practices survey has found the following information about trends in scheduling, pay & differentials, overtime, and shiftworker health & safety:

Demographics: Responses were received from 623 facilities in the United States and Canada, representing every state and province and approximately 120,000 shiftworking employees. In regards to workforce size, 62% of responses came from facilities with less than 100 employees,
29% from facilities with 101 to 500 employees, and 8% from facilities with more than 500 employees. The average shiftworker age at the facilities surveyed was 38 years old. On average, 60% of workers had less than 10 years experience, 33% had 10 to 20 years experience, and 7% had more than 20 years experience. Half of the facilities surveyed had no unionization in their workplace, one quarter had some unionization and one quarter had 100% unionization.

Shift Schedules
Length of Use: Eleven percent of companies have
used their current schedule for less than 1 year, 30% have
used their current schedule for 2 to 5 years, and 58%
have used their current schedule for more than 5 years.

Shift Length: Thirty-eight percent of companies used
8-hour schedules, 48% used 12-hour schedules, 3% used
combination 8-hour and 12-hour schedules, 5% used
10-hour schedules, and the remaining 6% used
combination schedules with varying shift lengths.
Shift Rotation: Thirty-three percent of companies
used a rotating shift system and 66% used a fixed shift
system. 47% of facilities used schedules that rotate weekly. 15% of facilities have schedules that
rotate every two weeks. Monthly rotations were reported by 10% of companies. Specialized or random (e.g. on-call) rotations were reported by 26% of companies.

8-Hour Schedules: Forty-seven percent of companies used a fixed 8-hour schedule, 32% used a forward rotating 8-hour schedule, and 21% used a backward rotating 8-hour schedule.
Backward rotating 8-hour schedules showed a greater incidence of fatigue problems in the workforce, with 62% of managers describing their fatigue problem as "moderate to severe" compared to only 43% of managers using forward-rotating 8-hour schedules.

12-Hour Schedules: The most popular 12-hour schedule was the "2-3-2, Every Other Weekend Off" (EOWEO) schedule (43%). Another 27% of companies used a "Long Break" schedule incorporating a 7- or 8-day break every 4 weeks, 17% used the "4-3, 3-4" schedule, 6% used the "3 on 3 off" schedule, 5% used the "4 on 4 off" schedule, and 2% used the "Continental 2-day 2-night 4-off" schedule.

Mandated vs. Employee Selected Schedules
At 41% of the facilities surveyed, management had mandated
the currently used shift schedule, 19% had negotiated the
schedule with their union, and 39% of facilities allowed the employees to select their own schedule. Of those facilities who mandated their schedules, 55% mandated 8-hour shifts, 32% mandated 12-hour shifts, and a further 13% mandated combination schedules. Additionally, 51% of those mandated schedules were fixed as opposed to rotating.
However, when employees were able to negotiate or select
their own work schedule, a far greater proportion selected
12-hour schedules (only 19% selected 8-hour shifts, 67%
selected 12-hour shifts, and 14% selected combination
schedules) and a far greater proportion opted for rotating
schedules (only 16% selected fixed schedules). There was
little difference seen between the speed of rotation with
mandated, negotiated, or employee-selected schedules.
The survey found the fatigue levels reported by managers are significantly impacted by the manner in
which the schedule was implemented. With mandated schedules, 51% of managers reported "moderate
to severe" fatigue problems. However, only 37% of managers using an employee-selected schedule reported "moderate to severe" fatigue problems.

Overtime
The average employee represented in the survey worked 249 hours of overtime in the last year. This is equivalent to 1.73 extra 12-hour shifts each month or 2.6 extra 8-hour shifts. With recent studies indicating that mandatory overtime costs US employers more than $150 billion per year in fatigue-related accidents and injuries, this continuing increase in overtime levels is a cause for significant concern.

Overtime hours: Twenty-seven percent of facilities
reported that workers averaged under 100 hours of over-time
(OT), 25% of facilities reported workers averaged
100 to 199 OT hours, 22% of facilities reported workers
averaged 200 to 299 OT hours, 10% of facilities reported
workers averaged 300 to 399 OT hours, 6% of facilities
reported workers averaged 400 to 499 OT hours, and 10%
of facilities reported workers averaged over 500 OT hours
per year. Twenty-six percent of the employees worked 57% of the total overtime hours, demonstrating that overtime allocation is often imbalanced. In fact, the majority of hours are worked by a minority of employees, often
leading to an increase in accidents, injuries, and performance errors among this group.

Overtime management: Different methods of handling overtime were reported in the surveys. An on-call
system was used in 28% of companies, hold-overs were used in 41% of companies, and a combination of both systems was used 31% of companies. Overtime was voluntary in 59% of companies, mandatory in 10% of companies, and both voluntary and mandatory depending on circumstance was used in 31% of companies.

Shift Differential
Eighty-nine percent of 24-hour facilities pay their
employees a shift differential, primarily for evening
and night shifts. In some cases, especially among
those facilities that have recently converted from 5-
to 7-day operations, an additional differential is paid
for weekend hours.

The average shift differential is $0.84 per hour,
though this amount can range from less than $0.10
per hour to more than $4.00. The variation largely
depends upon the industry, region, and job task.
This has increased nearly $0.35 since the last
Shiftwork Practices Survey in 2000.

Employee Benefits

Human Resources & Training: Ninety-three percent of companies do not provide Human Resources coverage during the night shift. 41% of companies do not provide training for shiftworkers on how to cope with the challenges of performance, safety, health & quality of life when working shifts.

Childcare: Less than 1% of companies provided on-site childcare for their employees and only 2% subsidized childcare for shiftworkers with young children. 19% of companies reported that there were no extended hour childcare facilities located in the area, a few companies reported that childcare in their area was available in the evening only (6%) or 24-hours a day (6%), and 69% of managers reported they did not know about childcare availability.

Fatigue & Accidents
Employee fatigue was reported to be widespread in many round-the-clock companies, with almost half the respondents reporting "severe" (6%) and "moderate" (41%) fatigue problems.

Another 47% of companies reported "minor" fatigue problems and only 6% reported no fatigue problems in their 24-hour operation. Determining the role of fatigue in human-error related accidents is often difficult. However,
managers reported that up to 45% of human-error related accidents and injuries at their facilities
could be attributed to fatigue or lack of alertness. Accidents were reportedly most common on the day shift (37%) and night shift (29%).

Workplace Napping
The percentage of companies that permit napping in the
workplace declined slightly over the last two years from
48% to 44%. During this time, the number of companies
that forbid and discipline napping workers increased from
31% to 38%. This is a troubling trend since numerous
legal cases have set a precedent for holding the employer
liable in cases in which drowsy employees, either on- or
off-duty, suffer a fatigue-related accident. By forbidding
napping, employers are placing themselves at an increased
risk for legal liability. As well, numerous studies have
demonstrated that napping is a highly effective fatigue
countermeasure.

Follow Ups:

• Re: Shiftwork research crazy 07:51 9/12/02 (1)
  • Re: Re: Shiftwork research David Mitchell 05:22 9/30/02 (0)

---

Copyright ©1995-2005 Sleepnet.com., All rights reserved