The Wire

Since last week’s story on fatigue in underground mines, experts in industrial relations, contacted by The Wire, agree that worker fatigue is going to be one of the most dangerous issues if employers force long and inflexible shifts on their workers. Couple that with the trend of introducing “mobile workforces” in certain industries, where employees are flown in from different states to work on rotation, we see a new kind of stress being put on our labour force. Don Dingsdag, is an Occupational Health and Safety expert from the School of Environment and Agriculture at the University of Western Sydney. He studies the effects of long shifts on industry workers and says the move to contract-based work severely strips workers of their quality of life. And you guessed it: sleep is the first thing to go. Taya Fabijanic spoke to one miner who currently works 6 x 10 hour day shifts per week, takes 3 days off and then works 6 x 10 hour night shifts the next week. He asked to remain anonymous.