Andrea Oates reports on the findings of new research on the health and safety impacts of night working.

Working at night has increased dramatically over recent years, with night workers now making up 27 per cent of the UK workforce in 2022 compared to 19 per cent in 2017, according to new union-backed research. But despite strong evidence of the negative effects of working at night, the Anglia Ruskin and Greenwich Universities study found little evidence that employers are putting measures in place to protect workers from the risks.

Five trade unions commissioned the report (the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMT), the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA), Equity and Community) because of concerns about the impact of night work on their members, with some employers demanding more night and weekend work. It sets out the findings of a literature review and interviews with around 60 workers in a variety of job roles.

“Previous research demonstrates strong links between night work and cardiovascular, gastro-intestinal and metabolic diseases such as diabetes,” University of Greenwich senior lecturer and co-author Dr Ruth Ballardie reported. “There are less strong links around some forms of cancer, but the link with cancer is dose dependent, so the more night work you do the higher the risk.”

These risks are based on disturbances of the circadian rhythm – the “body clock”, sleep deprivation and social desynchronisation – being out-of-sync with family and friends. Night work also has negative effects on relationships and family and social life.

Despite statutory health and safety protection for night workers contained in the Working Time Regulations 1998, and more detailed Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Office for Road and Rail (ORR) guidance, the research findings paint a bleak picture of life for Britain’s night workers.

“They report feeling exhausted,” said Ballardie. “Not just feeling a bit tired like you might do after a normal day’s work. This is utter exhaustion.”

Workers reported poor quality, split or fragmented sleep, often only getting five hours of sleep, resulting in sleep deprivation. Even in safety critical industries like rail, they said fatigue management risk assessments were not always conducted well, or were poorly designed, and in non-safety critical industries, there were no fatigue risk assessments at all.

The research confirmed “strong emerging literature” that older workers have a reduced tolerance for night work, something it says the 2006 HSE guidelines “barely mention”.

And it found insufficient or poorly scheduled recovery time, with the HSE guidelines often ignored or “followed to the absolute minimum”. There was evidence that managers were putting “business needs” first, with occupational health and safety assessment recommendations to reduce night work, and requests to change rosters, being ignored or refused.

Dr Ballardie found that, particularly in the railway industry, that a reduced workforce had led to work extensification – working too many hours because of excessive amounts of overtime, and work intensification – very high workloads. 

“These limit managerial flexibility in terms of rosters,” she said. “It’s not just that the guidelines are not being followed, but how these organisational factors then make things much worse.”

Even where employers did follow the HSE guidelines, workers still reported excessive fatigue and sleep deprivation.

“This suggests the current recommendations may not be providing sufficient protection,” she added.

“Fatigue is the immediate symptom, but over time negative health consequences emerge.”

Knock-on effects

The links between night work and poor health are further exacerbated by poor diet and exercise. The research found that although workers wanted to keep to a good diet and exercise programme, a combination of social desynchronisation and fatigue – being too tired to go shopping or cook – made this impossible for many.

Some workplaces had canteens for day workers, but they were often not open for night workers. Instead, “at best, they’ve got machines that dispense packets of crisps and chocolate bars”. Some workers were unable to take meal breaks, and even when they could, this was not necessarily when they were feeling hungry.

“Meal breaks are really important in combatting fatigue on the job and ensuring workers can drive home safely at the end of their shift,” said Dr Ballardie.

The study also confirmed evidence of the negative impacts of night work on families and social networks. Shift work had contributed to relationship breakdowns and affected relationships with children.

“People talked about being angry dads because they were grumpy and moody following night shifts,” she reported. “Childcare is often a reason for doing night work, but it can impact on the quality of relationships with children.”

There were even examples of night workers having to take annual leave to attend their child’s birthday party.

Recommended actions

One of the report’s key recommendations is for workers to have control over their rosters, which along with flexibility can “somewhat ameliorate” the effects on social and family life.

It also recommends there should be recognition that older workers have a reduced tolerance for night work, so that regimes and rosters being adapted to the changing needs of night workers need to become the norm, rather than something which individual workers have to request and potentially be refused.

There should also be recognition that workers need sufficient recovery time to overcome sleep deprivation and fatigue and be able to re-adjust to different time schedules on rotating rosters. This need for extra recovery time is not a burden shared by day workers, and night workers should be compensated with additional recovery days, for example.

Canteen facilities, serving hot and healthy food, should be at least the equivalent to that provided for day workers. There should also be on the job occupational health and safety assessments and health checks. It is often difficult for night workers to get doctor’s appointments because they are sleeping during GP opening hours.

The HSE guidelines on managing shiftwork were published in 2006 and are based on research collected in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“Since then, there’s been a lot more research, especially on the links to diseases, and emerging research on family and social life,” said Dr Ballardie. “It’s time to revisit the guidelines – not just a new literature review, but to include case studies of key industries.”

She suggests talking to workers about what is actually going on, including how the ORR and HSE guidelines have been implemented, and why they are not being implemented. When implemented, do they minimise fatigue for workers?

“It’s not just about whether the guidelines are being followed, but about how they intersect with other aspects of the organisation, including excessive work demand and lack of social and managerial support,” she added. “There should be psychosocial risk assessments and regular surveys of the night workforce to assess work demands and fatigue, and that information should be shared with the unions.”

Furthermore, the guidelines should become minimum mandatory standards to protect the health and safety of workers and, in safety critical industries, the public.

“There needs to be a shift to a more mandatory approach, with a mandatory requirement for fatigue assessment of all night workers, not just those in safety critical industries, because of the adverse effects on the health and family life of all workers.”

The research, The health and safety impacts of night working, can be found here.

Andrea Oates is a freelance writer who writes on current affairs from a trade union perspective and specialises in health and safety at work and work-based learning and training.