Organisation of unsocial working hours and management of occupational risks

This document communicates the results of two field studies involving different activity sectors.
These studies in fact concerned manufacturing operations at a car parts factory and service-based operations at a ski area.

The research aim was to identify the effects of unsocial hours not only on occupational accident and disease risks, but also on employee-perceived health.
Identification and analysis of these effects focused more specifically on the following aspects:

- occupational accidents and diseases occurring during these working hour configurations,
- employee perception of occupational risks,
- a healthy life: food and sleep management,
- scheduling of working and private lives.

Two other dimensions emerged during the second study, namely occupational identity and working group, and we therefore integrated these into the analyses.

The implemented social science-based approach favoured expression of employee experience during personal interviews. Two series of interviews were therefore conducted on the same employees to take into account possible changes in personal assessment of the effects of unsocial hours. Data are available from a total of 46 interviews.
Occupational accident and disease data was mainly taken from documents available at the companies concerned.

In conclusion, recommendations are drawn up for improving the system surrounding organisation of unsocial hours and monitoring of their effects on employees.