Conflicts between employee preferences and ergonomic recommendations in shift scheduling: regulation based on consent is not sufficient.
OBJECTIVE
Contribution to the discussion of the role of participation/consent of employees in working hours regulation.


METHODS
Exploratory analysis of conflicts between preferences of employees and ergonomic recommendations in shift scheduling by analysing a large number of participative shift scheduling projects.


RESULTS
The analysis showed that very often the pursuit of higher income played the major role in the decision making process of employees and employees preferred working hours in conflict with health and safety principles.


CONCLUSIONS
First, the consent of employees or the works council alone does not ensure ergonomically sound schedules. Besides consent, risk assessment procedures seem to be a promising but difficult approach. Secondly, more research is necessary to check the applicability of recommendations under various settings, to support the risk assessment processes and to improve regulatory approaches to working hours.
Gärtner
Johannes
J
Vienna University of Technology, Wien, Austria. johannes.gaertner@tuwien.ac.at
D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D034462:Dissent and Disputes; D006804:Ergonomics / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D016272:Occupational Health; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance / Q000502:physiology; D016526:Workload / Q000592:standards*