How does shift work affect employees?

If your business employs shift workers or is considering doing so, you need to consider how this type of work affects your employees. Employers are duty bound by law to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees at work.

The onus isn’t all on the company though, the HSE states in its managing shift work guidance that employees working shifts should also make an effort to understand the risk factors involved, including what causes fatigue. However, the health and safety representatives or dedicated H&S department within a business can play a role in educating its employees.

A report by the Health and Social Care Information Centre showed 33% of men and 22% of women of working age were doing shift work. This report found that working shifts is most common amongst 16 to 24 year olds, with nearly half of men and a third of women having this working pattern. People over the age of 55 are less likely to be shift workers.

Nature dictates that humans should be active during the day and asleep at night. We have an internal body clock that is linked to the daily cycle of night and day, also known as circadian rhythms. Your body clock influences your bodily functions including temperature, kidney function, blood pressure and digestion.

Shift work disrupts circadian rhythms and can cause fatigue and difficulty sleeping, change appetites and disturb digestion, and could cause employees to rely on sedatives and/or stimulants such as sleeping tablets and energy drinks.

Increased risk of accidents

Studies have shown that disrupted body clocks can increase the risk of accidents, errors and injuries. It’s been found that safety levels decrease during night shifts, further decrease when shifts are over eight hours long and are particularly decreased over successive night shifts.

Major accidents have occurred during night shifts, including Exxon Valdez, Bhopal and Chernobyl.

Effect of shift work on health

At the end of 2014 a study was published in the British Medical Journal that shared findings from a longitudinal study of shift workers. The results showed that shift work is associated with impaired cognition. Those doing shift work for over 10 years suffer more; the effects are not permanent but take around five years to reverse. The study concluded that “shift work chronically impairs cognition, with potentially important safety consequences not only for the individuals concerned, but also for society.”

One of the report’s authors, Dr Philip Tucker, is part of the research team at Swansea University. He told the BBC: “It was quite a substantial decline in brain function, it is likely that when people trying to undertake complex cognitive tasks then they might make more mistakes and slip-ups, maybe one in 100 makes a mistake with a very large consequence, but it’s hard to say how big a difference it would make in day-to-day life.

“There are ways to mitigate the effects in the way you design work schedules and regular medical check-ups… should include cognitive performance tests to look for danger signs.”

Shift workers are more likely to suffer with heart attacks, obesity and strokes. Shift work has also been associated with an increased risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes.

What can you do to manage the risk?

As Dr Tucker suggests regular medical check ups of shift workers are important. The HSE states that if you’re employing night workers you need to offer those employees a free health assessment before they start their night shifts and on a regular basis after that.

You should be sure that a person is fit to be a night worker and if an employee develops health issues that a doctor thinks is associated with their night work, you should offer that employee suitable other work where possible.

The HSE’s managing shiftwork book contains comprehensive guidance on risk assessments, reducing risk and all the legal requirements you need to know about.