Probably been asked a hundred times but humour me... Working time regulations 1998 We have foreign contractors on site who come over for a 4 - 6 week period, working 10 hours a day 7 days a week. They have signed the opt out agreement but we are worried that they may be burning themselves out and if they were to have an accident then the time worked could be identified as a contributing factor. They get an hour dinner break, with additional comfort breaks as required. There is a clear 11 hours between shifts but they don't get a 24 hour break at weekends, (they choose not to) My understanding of the regulations is that once an opt out is signed they are free to work these kind of hours? We are thinking about insisting that they take a 24 hour break at least once during the term of contract. Any thoughts?

The working time 'opt out' does not include opting out of H&S so U are correct to question the point. The 'OO'is only referring to parts of the working time regs so its back to the risk assessment process noting that working 12 hours per day in high risk industries was the norm until recently [and note fishermen; as 12 hours per day over long periods is short time working to them!] and to my knowledge did not significantly contribute to the accident rates nor type of accident in most cases To 'burn out' a young healthy person in most industrial settings today in the UK, noting that heavy industry has gone, takes some doing so the RA should account for health, stamina and similar areas as well as the norm areas Undertake the assessment and go on from there or employ more people at sensible rates of pay, so as all staff can work a sensible day and have a sensible amount of time off!

Take care of what they do out of their working hours - what is their travel time to home? Are they showing signs of excessive tiredness? 11 hours sounds OK. However, at least one employer has been found guilty of an offence due to excessive working time: "There was a fatal accident on the A10 between Cambridge and Ely between a lorry and a van. The lorry, load and van were all seized. Investigation of the timesheet of the van driver revealed he worked excessively long hours (more than 20 hours a day on occasions). It appears he fell asleep on the way home. The prosecution led to a £30k fine on the company and £24k costs – which led to the company verging on bankruptcy."

Even after you have signed the opt out there are still limits. I can't remember exactly what they are, you will have to read the regs I operate in an area where some work once started, can't be stopped. We talked to HSE and with their approval operate a 12 days on 2 days off. This was the absolute maximum that was allowed. We also have in place a very rigorous RA and observation procedures in place.

Andy Here's one I did earlier...... The Health and Safety Executive published guidance “Managing shift work”, HSG256, ISBN 0-7176-6197-0 in 2006. This draws on the findings of various international research reports and makes various recommendations as to shift-working arrangements. Summary of international research There is a substantial body of international research that indicates that long shifts, particularly in excess of 9 hours are associated with adverse impacts on • productivity • error rates • accident rates • worker health and family relationships However, the findings of the research are not wholly consistent. There is some evidence to indicate that accident rates may not increase significantly where extended shifts are associated with a “compressed week” if • Long shifts have worker buy in - with less commute time and more time away from the workplace • The overall length of the week remains at e.g. 40 hours Little of the research is specific to the construction sector. Most is either cross-sectoral, or targeted at safety critical industries. The latter research has enabled guidance e.g. “Managing fatigue in safety critical work”, published by the Office of Rail Regulation (www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/293.pdf), or HSE guidance to the operators of “major hazards” sites “Human Factors Briefing Note No.10 – Fatigue” (www.hse.gov.uk/humanfactors/comah/10fatigue.pdf). HSG256 notes that fatigue, night work and/or shift working have been contributory factors to a number of major incidents including Three Mile Island (1979), Bhopal (1984), Challenger Space Shuttle (1986), Chernobyl (1986), Clapham Junction (1988) and Exxon Valdez (1989). Research findings The most extensive single research project which we have reviewed was that of Hänecke K et al which reviewed more that 1.2 million accidents in Germany, where the workers’ compensation system is such that there is little if any underreporting (in contrast with e.g. the U.K. or U.S.) This was cross-sectoral but found that • A constant accident rate applied for the first 9 hours of work • There was an exponential increase after 9 hours of work, with the rate doubling after 12 hours, and tripling after 16 hours • In addition, for the two later of the three “traditional” shiftwork starting times (e.g. 2pm and 10pm), the relative accident rates increased dramatically beyond the eighth hour My review only identified two studies specific to the construction industry, both in the U.S. In “Overtime and Extended Work Shifts : Recent Findings on Illnesses, Injuries and Health Behaviors” , NIOSH reported the findings of research by Lowery et al. These researchers sampled over 2000 contracts involving some 32000 workers in the development of Denver International Airport. They found that there was a statistically significant increase in non Lost Working Time injuries for those contracts where more than 20% of payroll was associated with overtime (i.e. in excess of 40 hours per week), compared with contracts where up to 20% of payroll was so associated. The relative ratio was 1.57 (95% confidence range 1.13 to 2.17) to 1.0 Dong (1995) analysed data from the more than 12000 men and women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort. The survey identified the proportion of the sample who reported that they had had a work-related injury since the previous interview. These included 550 to 600 respondents who indicated that they worked in construction at the time of various annual surveys from 1979 to 1994 and biannual surveys from 1996. In construction those working more than 8 hours a day were found to have statistically significantly higher injury rates (15.0% versus 10.4%) than those who worked 7 or 8 hours a day. Across all sectors, Dong found a statistically significant exponential trend in injury rates rising from those working 7 or 8 hours a day to those working more than 16 hours a day. He did not find such a trend for construction, but commented that this might reflect the size of sample of construction workers was perhaps too small to determine a statistically significant upwards trend. HSE guidance HSG256 recommends the avoidance of shifts in excess of 8 hours where work is demanding, safety critical or monotonous and/or there are physical or chemical hazards, and the general avoidance of any shifts in excess of 12 hours. This would suggest that HSE are generally not supportive of the long working hours culture that is prevalent in the U.K. construction sector. Key Online References “Shift work and fatigue” (HSE) - www.hse.gov.uk/humanfactors/topics/fatigue.htm “Working time – its impact on safety and health” (ILO) - www.ilo.org/public/engli...dtrav/pdf/wtwo-as-03.pdf “Overtime and Extended Work Shifts: Recent Findings on Illnesses, Injuries and Health Behaviors” (NIOSH) - www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2004%2D143/ “Long workhours, work scheduling and work-related injuries among construction workers in the United States” (Center to Protect Workers’ Rights) – Download from www.sjweh.fi/show_abstract.php?abstract_id=915 “Accident risk as a function of hour at work and time of day as determined from accident data and exposure models for the German working population” (Hänecke K et al in Scandinavian Journal of Work and Environment Health) Download abstract from www.sjweh.fi/show_abstract.php?abstract_id=334

Peter, I like that! I will keep that safe somewhere and maybe pass off as my own work sometime in the future ;-))