INDUSTRIAL SHIFT SYSTEMS

This technical report describes the identification of shift systems wo rked by industrial shiftworkers in England, Scotland and Wales. A dive rse range of shift systems were reported to be in operation across 27 industrial sectors. Companies employed up to 14 different shift system s at a particular site, The numbers of shiftworkers on a given shift s chedule ranged from 1 to 2977, Most systems employed fewer than 100 pe ople, The majority of rotas were regular, rotating systems. The most c ommon shift durations were 8 or 12 h. Compared to earlier surveys of s hiftwork prevalence in certain industries there appeared to be a subst antial increase over the past 3 decades in the proportion of the workf orce who work shifts. Information about the average numbers of hours w orked per week on major system types is given. In addition, data for t he range of shifts per cycle, the distribution of shifts and distribut ions of their start and end times are presented. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. All rights reserved.