Safe Work Australia is developing a draft model Code of Practice: Managing fatigue risks at work, and has called for consultation on the draft model as part of the development process.

The draft model Code of Practice aims to provide practical guidance on how to manage health and safety risks related to fatigue at work, and has been developed with the support of Safe Work Australia members and other safety regulators.

It explained that fatigue can be caused by a range of hazards broadly grouped as:

• Working hours and shift design: working long hours, working during some or all of the natural time for sleep or not allowing sufficient opportunity for sleep or rest.
• Tasks, equipment or environments: an imbalance between the demands of a worker’s job, and the personal and work resources available to support a person to manage these demands.
• Individual: individual characteristics impacting sleep and recovery causing workers to become fatigued.

“Shift work, particularly long hours and night shift work, is also associated with poorer general wellbeing, creating conflicts between work and family or other commitments, limiting opportunity for physical activity and is associated with increased risk of the health issues and chronic diseases listed above,” the draft stated.

“You must eliminate or minimise the risk of workers or others becoming fatigued, not just manage the risks arising from fatigued workers or others (e.g. from having slower response rates and inhibited decision-making abilities).”

In addition to the health risks, fatigue can increase the risk of injury and other harm. The draft model stated that this risk of fatigue-related incidents occurs when:

• it reduces workers’ capacity (e.g. fatigued workers have slower reaction times, reduced alertness, strength, coordination and capability to communicate, impaired memory, concentration and judgement, and can have microsleeps), and
• health and safety depends on workers’ performance (e.g. there are inadequate systems in place to prevent workers making fatigue-related errors or to protect workers and others from the consequences of those errors).

Fatigue also impacts workers’ coordination, response times and cognitive abilities, and studies have shown that being awake for 17 hours has similar effect on cognitive and motor performance as having a blood alcohol content of 0.05 per cent and being awake for 24 hours is similar to having a blood alcohol content of 0.10 per cent.

Safety Work Australia has developed a consultation hub for interested parties, and consultation closes on Wednesday 27 November 2024.