Shiftwork and Sickness Absence in Korean Manufacturing Industries

Park, Jung Sun; Paek, Domyung; Lee, Ki Beom; Rhee, Kyung Yong; Yi, Kwan Hyung

Abstract

In order to provide necessary information for better health of workers through understanding the actual status of the industries adopting shift systems. The data were gathered from a stratified random sample of 347(0.5%) firms selected out of about 70,000 manufacturing industries throughout the nation in 1993 stratification during sampling was by industrial group and number of workers. The major findings obtained from 288 firms surveyed completely were as follows: 1. About 20.2% of the 288 firms were adopting shift systems and shiftworkers accounted for about 25.1% of the total work force in 288 firms. 2. The bigger number of workers was, the higher the adopting rate of shift system was. 3. The rate of having welfare facilities such as dining room, commuting bus, washing facilities, and health care room etc. was higher in the industries adopting shift systems. 4. The major industrial groups adopting shift systems were the rubber & plastic goods manufacturing industry (54.1 per 100 firms) and the textile manufacturing industry (44.8 per 100 firms). However the proportion of shiftworkers was higher in the textile manufacturing industry (70.5 per 100 firms) and the electronics industry (57.9 per 100 firms). 5. The most predominant work schedule was the weekly rotating, semi-continuos 2-crew 2-shift system (47.5%). 6. In the industries adopting shift systems, shiftworkefs had an adjusted average of 0.29 spells per 100 workers (O.14-0.45 in 95% C.I) compared to 0.23 spells per 100 nonshift dayworkers (0.15-0.31 in 95% C.I) for 1 month. 7. Also in the industries adopting shift systems, the adjusted average annual turn-over rate of shiftworkers was 13.07 per 100 workers (12.03-14.12 in 95% C.I) compared to 10.18 per 100 nonshift dayworkers(9.53-10.82 in 95% C.I).