As fatigue levels rise, so do accident rates.(National Report)

Claims, January, 2005

Extended-hours operations, with employees on the job outside of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., have significantly higher rates of absenteeism and turnover, according to the sixth annual Shiftwork Practices survey by Circadian Technologies.

Managers at 10 percent of the facilities participating in the survey reported that their employees are severely fatigued, up from 6 percent in 2002. The survey found that workers' compensation claims are 15 times higher at operations with severe fatigue problems than at those reporting no fatigue problems. It also found that facilities banning employee napping, an effective measure against fatigue, have workers' compensation costs four tunes higher than those that do not prohibit napping.

In 2003, absenteeism rates averaged...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.