Length of Shift. Shifts shall be bid upon, within each team, quarterly.
Length of Shift. Except in an emergency situation, personnel shall not be required or allowed to work more than sixteen (16) consecutive hours. Should an employee be required or allowed, due to said emergency situation, to work more than sixteen (16) consecutive hours, said employee shall not be allowed to return to work without being off duty a minimum of eight (8) hours from time said employee was relieved.
Length of Shift. To provide flexibility in rostering whilst maintaining suitable WHS protection for employees, the following will apply:
Length of Shift. It is suggested that where ever possible the Company will schedule additional overtime shifts in four hour increments. In so doing double shifts could be avoided and the sixteen hour maximum limit more easily achieved. The length of shift has no affect on rotation. MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: Will be dealt with on a to-be-worked basis (to be scheduled within a four-week period. On a trial basis exceptions can only be made by agreement of the Company and the Union.) All missed opportunities are to be cleaned up by the calendar year end. Once per quarter the Company and the Union will review the missed opportunities outstanding with a view to having these worked in the following quarter.
Length of Shift. The guidelines provide “Length of shift should be no longer than 8 hours”. Human beings function efficiently to a maximum of 5 hours; rest breaks and meal periods extend the working day to 8, however longer than that and people physically start to “xxxx”. So does working longer than 8 hours constitute a risk and if so how much of one? Is 9 hours for instance such a risk as to be too unsafe? No, of course it isn’t: the irregular reasonable use of overtime is accepted practice but if overtime starts to become excessive then health and safety issues will arise. On-call and Calls after 2400 On call is effectively overtime. It is worked in excess of 8 hour a day or 40 hours a week; so what amount of on call or call back is reasonable? The guidelines note that “On call should be considered as on duty when considering the impact of fatigue.” This reminds us that being on call does have an impact; it is “on top of” our normal day. On call impacts are not only about when a call back might fall but how long someone is working when rostered on call. If on call at the end of the day and at work at midnight for instance, then an individual is likely to have been awake anywhere up to 18 hours. Research has shown that at 18 hours awake, someone is performing at the same level as too drunk to drive, so is it safe for them to get in a car at 0000xxx xxx xxxxx home? One way to manage this risk is to provide a taxi to get home and if necessary back to their car the next day. If this level of work is more frequent, time to think of a pm shift. And if called again after 2400, we need to be more aware of managing the risks that are clearly present, not only at the time of that 0300hrs call back but afterwards as people need time to repay any sleep debt they have accumulated. Recuperation requirements are reflected in this regard in the statement that “Any calls after 2400 require a 9 hour break after the call.” If someone is up in the middle of the night then their sleep is disrupted and they should have the opportunity to repay that accumulated sleep debt by sleeping. To not get that rest means that the employee will be tired and if having to work the following day, even more so as the day goes on. People also sleep less well when on call, even when not called out. Most will report “waiting for the phone to ring” indicative of less deep sleep (and therefore less restorative) when on call as compared to normal sleep patterns. This means we need to remember how many consecutive ...
