Job rotation as a factor in reducing physical workload at a refuse collecting department

The effect of job rotation on the physical workload was investigated for ma le employees working at a refuse collecting department. Before the introduc tion of job rotation, an employee worked as a street sweeper, as a refuse c ollector or as a driver. After the introduction of job rotation, every empl oyee was allowed to alternate between two of the three possible jobs during the day, i.e. refuse collecting/street sweeping, refuse collecting/driving or street sweeping/driving. Two non-rotation groups (i.e. refuse collector s and street sweepers) and two rotation groups (i.e. refuse collectors/stre et sweepers and street sweepers/drivers) were mutually compared. The physic al workload was determined by measuring the perceived load, energetic load and postural load during a full working day. Job rotation resulted in a sig nificant decrease of the perceived load and energetic load and a slight dec rease of the postural load. The results indicate that the total amount of w ork performed by means of job rotation resulted in an overall reduced physi cal workload of the employees of the refuse collecting department.