UK
New sentencing guidelines means that large companies need to be even more careful about staff fatigue when devising staff working patterns, a new report warns.
Major companies convicted of corporate manslaughter that have a turnover of £50m or more could now face fines of up to £20m, according to recent guidelines announced by the Sentencing Council.
While there are many lifestyle factors that can cause fatigue, so too can work-related factors such as time of working and resting periods, length and number of consecutive work duties and intensity of work demands, according to the paper published by Imperago, a specialist software and services company.
"Many organisations with complex 24/7 shift and rostering operations have built up work patterns over the years," said Rob Ayers, group customer account manager at Imperago. "Rarely do these working patterns get reviewed to ensure that they are meeting the requirements of the business today, if they are the most efficient, and crucially, if they safeguard against staff fatigue."
