Long Working Hours A Number One Killer

Working long hours is possibly the single biggest occupational health and safety problem in workplaces today, according to Australian Council of Trade Unions Assistant Secretary Richard Marles.

Speaking at the ACTU's Working Hours Summit, Marles outlined a long list of health conditions associated with long working hours.

"It is documented that, in terms of health, long hours of work have been associated with increases in heart disease, decreases in fertility, increases with stress and other psychological disorders, decreases in the rate of healthy babies being born, and increases in accident rates at work. At its worst, this is a problem which is killing our people," he said.

Marles said significant adverse social effects are also associated with long hours of work, including relationship breakdowns and decreases in parenting.

Meanwhile, many employers have still not recognised the impact of fatigue on workplace safety and are still unaware about how the situation should be handled, according University of South Australia Centre for Sleep Research organisational researcher and consultant Dr Angela Baker.

She says fatigue remains a "sleeper issue" in the quest for safer workplaces, with many employers who do see a problem with excessive hours still in the dark about how to deal with it.

But Dr Baker says the process can be as easy as looking around for some basic signals.

Although there is no biological test for determining how tired a person is "there are some basic 'reasonable person' and performance competency tests that may highlight the impact of fatigue", she says.

Workers and employers need to look at "what kind of work is involved, how the work is organised and, of course, carefully manage working time arrangements".

"The size of the organisation, its culture, the type of work, workload and type of enterprise, all need to be considered when addressing fitness for work. There is no 'one size fits all' approach," she says.

Visit the ACTU's Reasonable Hours Campaign page at:
http://www.actu.asn.au/public/campaigns/reasonable/capsoption.html

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Last modified: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 20:37:38 EST