Shift worker...or not?

[Steve Fryar]

I am desperately seeking clarification on what classifies a person as a shift worker.I work in the oilfields in Moomba,SA.I work a two week on,two off roster.I am on call 24 hours a day.I work regardless whether it is a public holiday or not.Am I a shift worker???

Thanks.

[tea lady]

Don't think so. I think shift workers have their shifts shifting. As in Day shift this week, arvo shift next week, night shift the week after etc.

Do you have a union you could ask? Or an award something or other? Or that fair work commission or something?

[Jim Carroll]

As Ann indicated shifts are rotating shifts Day, afternoon the night.

Some work it in 5 or 7 day rotations some 2 days on 2 days off 2 days on 2 days off the three on and 2 off over the period of a month.

You never really find a happy shift worker as it stuffs up your sleeping and social life.

We see my brother every 3 or 4 years at xmas time. The others he is rostered on and as he has no children is usually asked to work.

[Master Splinter]

5. DEFINITION
It is difficult to arrive at an agreed definition of shift work and extended working hours. Shift work is usually described as work outside normal day hours.
Work within day hours means:
• a work day usually completed within a spread of hours starting at or after 7 am and finishing before 7 pm between Monday and Friday
and
• working time consisting of no more than 8 hours per day and 40 hours or less per week (excluding overtime)
and
• hours worked as a continuous on-duty period except for the normal meal and rest breaks.
For the purposes of these Guidelines, every system of work other than day work is regarded as shift work. This includes weekend, afternoon, night and rotating shifts, split or broken shifts, extended shifts, rostered overtime and (unrostered) extended working hours.

From: http://www.actu.asn.au/data/files/general/shiftwork.pdf

[Kev Y.]

You never really find a happy shift worker as it stuffs up your sleeping and social life..

Jim.. There are happy shiftworkers.. you just have to meet them after the drugs have kicked in.

Yep, mine are due to kick in abbbooouuuttttt..........




NOW

[Kev Y.]

I am desperately seeking clarification on what classifies a person as a shift worker.I work in the oilfields in Moomba,SA.I work a two week on,two off roster.I am on call 24 hours a day.I work regardless whether it is a public holiday or not.Am I a shift worker???

Thanks.

Steve.. as others have mentions, sadly I dont think you fit into the framework of a shift worker, you are that other animal which appears to be coming into its own, the FI/FO.

Sorry.

FI/FO ( fly in fly out)

[RETIRED]

For the purposes of these Guidelines, every system of work other than day work is regarded as shift work. This includes weekend, afternoon, night and rotating shifts, split or broken shifts, extended shifts, rostered overtime and (unrostered) extended working hours.

Not a shift worker but an employer.

[hughie]

I am desperately seeking clarification on what classifies a person as a shift worker.I work in the oilfields in Moomba,SA.I work a two week on,two off roster.I am on call 24 hours a day.I work regardless whether it is a public holiday or not.Am I a shift worker???

T

Steve, you probably have an on site award of some sort ie a EBA etc and It should be in there. Any other definitions will not count as they come from different industries and different states I would doubt your under a Federal award. From memory the Oil fields have their own set up.

[kiwigeo]

I am desperately seeking clarification on what classifies a person as a shift worker.I work in the oilfields in Moomba,SA.I work a two week on,two off roster.I am on call 24 hours a day.I work regardless whether it is a public holiday or not.Am I a shift worker???

Thanks.

Steve you've been in the oilpatch long enough to have worked out that you're a slave not a worker.

Are you still working jobs with one Engineer or has the client (a well known Australian Oil Company) finally dragged itself into the 21st Century and demanded that your employer supply two engineers to a job so you don't end up working 30 - 40 hours plus without sleep??

Absurd work hours are one reason I stopped working on land rigs and only lurk offshore these days.

[kiwigeo]

Steve.. as others have mentions, sadly I dont think you fit into the framework of a shift worker, you are that other animal which appears to be coming into its own, the FI/FO.

Sorry.

FI/FO ( fly in fly out)

Whether or not you fly in to a job is irrelevant. While FI/FO workers are at the work location they generally work shifts.

[Dills58]

I am a "shift worker" working 12 hour shifts day & evening 7 till 7. however we also he day "shift" workers that attract penelties like me but they only work the 7am - 7pm. I think the definition here is through the month you work each day of the week at least once day and evening.


Jim Carroll
"You never really find a happy shift worker as it stuffs up your sleeping and social life."

I work less than six months of the year, out of the less than six months I get five weeks leave. Comes close to 135 days I have to turn up here. Sure there are time when you miss out on family functions but good planning gets around this.

Dills.

[Harry72]

Im a bit shifty myself!

2 days/24hrs off/2 nights/4 day roster off 12.2hr shifts, 42 point something hr week.
Every one of my week ends is a long week end and I get 5 weeks holi's and unlimited sick leave(within reason!)... there are some perks

[kiwigeo]

I work less than six months of the year, out of the less than six months I get five weeks leave. Comes close to 135 days I have to turn up here. Sure there are time when you miss out on family functions but good planning gets around this.

Dills.

Its not just about missing out on family functions. No amount of planning can counter the physical and mental damage that shift work does to people. Humans just simply aren't meant to be awake and working at 3am in the morning. A couple of recent studies compared the basic motor skills of a shift worker study group to those of a person with a blood alcohol level of 0.05. One must ask the question is it safe to have shift workers driving machinery and making decisions when their motor skills are equivalent to those of a driver who is over the limit??

I only work 6 months of the year bit when I come back from a 3 week hitch out on the oil rigs I'm a vegetable for the first week back home. For the last 10 years I've suffered insomnia which is directly related to my work.



Cheers Martin

[Dills58]

No amount of planning can counter the physical and mental damage that shift work does to people.
Cheers Martin

Gee Martin, I have only been doing shift for 33 years, maybe that's what's wrong with me LOL.

Dills.

[kiwigeo]

Gee Martin, I have only been doing shift for 33 years, maybe that's what's wrong with me LOL.

Dills.

23 years of working shift work or working solo on the oil rigs. Not quite as long as you but long enough to have experienced the pros and cons of it all and long enough to have read a few studies on the effects of shift work on one's health.

Glad to hear that you don't have any problems with your health that can be related to shift work. That said, I think you'll find you're in the minority.

For the record.......Steve the instigator of this thread is a Wireline Engineer. While he's on a wireline job he might get lucky and get relieved every 12 hours by a second Engineer. If he's on a well operated by one of the smaller oilers who don't seem to rank health and safety above profits then Steve will probably end up on his feet for the duration of the job. That can range from 12 hours up to 40 plus hours. I used to work the land rigs and witnessing wireline jobs was one of my jobs....I quit the land jobs purely because I couldn't stay awake for 40 hours plus and be able to concentrate on my job (a bloke short on sleep QC'ng work being done by another bloke equally short of sleep...what a joke).

I work offshore these days where work hours are taken a bit more seriously than on land operations. Even then I occasionally get sent a totally inexperienced person as my offsider and end up doing their job for them as well as doing mine.

Shift work is something you chose to do and it can prove lucrative to many. However for many people too much focus is put on the money and the large blocks of time off......the trouble is often by the time many of these people realise its time to get out of the game their health has already become affected by their working hours and conditions.