Extended-hours operations, with employees on the job outside of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., have significantly higher rates of absenteeism and turnover, according to the sixth annual Shiftwork Practices survey by Circadian Technologies.
Managers at 10 percent of the facilities participating in the survey reported that their employees are severely fatigued, up from 6 percent in 2002. The survey found that workers' compensation claims are 15 times higher at operations with severe fatigue problems than at those reporting no fatigue problems. It also found that facilities banning employee napping, an effective measure against fatigue, have workers' compensation costs four times higher than those that do not prohibit napping.
In 2003, absenteeism rates averaged 5.8 percent among extended-hours workers, three times higher than the average rate of 1.9 percent for the entire United States workforce over the same period. Transportation, processing, and health-care industries have the highest absenteeism rates at 7.2 percent, 6.9 percent, and 6.8 percent, respectively. After factoring in the costs of finding replacements, management time, and overtime pay, employer costs for extended-hours employee absenteeism average $3,490 per worker per year, compared with an annual average of $925 for daytime employees.
Fatigue also affects workers' compensation costs. Industries reporting the most employee fatigue problems were processing, health care, and transportation industries that either encompass dangerous occupations or directly affect the health and safety of others.
“In continuous processing operations, much of the work is monotonous and performed in control rooms, but highly dangerous when something does go wrong,” said Alex Kerin, a Circadian consultant and principal author of the report. “Long hours for doctors, nurses and other health- care practitioners can lead to fatigue-related judgment errors that may harm their patients. Transportation, which is the likeliest sector to experience fatigue-related accidents, has by far the most severe fatigue problems, with 27 percent of companies reporting severe fatigue levels. This, too, poses danger to both employees and passengers.”
Kerin speculated that higher levels of severe fatigue may be related to an increase in average overtime rates to 12.6 percent in 2003 from 11.9 percent in 2002, as employers seek to meet the growing demand associated with the economic recovery without hiring new employees. He predicted that fatigue will become an even more pressing issue with the passage of legislation such as New Jersey's “Maggie's Law,” which makes drowsy driving a criminal offense.
Napping has been documented as an effective fatigue countermeasure and can reduce employer liability associated with accidents, according to Kerin. The number of facilities forbidding and using disciplinary measures against employee napping rose to nearly 57 percent, up from 38.2 percent in 2002. Facilities openly permitting napping declined to 7.1 percent from 11.3 percent last year. The average annual workers' compensation cost for facilities with disciplinary measures against napping was almost four times higher, at $2,077 per employee, versus $516 for those allowing napping.
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