Combined effects of shiftwork and individual working time control on long-term sickness absence: a prospective study of Finnish employees.

Objective: To investigate whether the effects of shiftwork on long-term sickness absence vary according to the level of individual working time control (WTC).

Methods: A representative sample of Finnish employees (1447 men and 1624 women) was combined with a register-based follow-up. A negative binomial model was used in the analysis of long-term sickness absence days.

A controlled intervention study on the effects of a very rapidly forward rotating shift system on sleep-wakefulness and well-being among young and elderly shift workers.

Shift work is related to problems in sleep/wakefulness and social life. The effects of a very rapidly forward rotating shift system on sleep, health and well-being of young (-45) and elderly (45+) maintenance workers were studied by a controlled intervention study. In the beginning, all the workers had a continuous backward rotating three-shift system.

Flexible working hours, health, and well-being in Europe: some considerations from a SALTSA project.

The project brought together researchers from 9 EU-Countries and resulted in a number of actions, in particular the following: (a) There is an urgent need of defining the concept of flexible working hours, since it has been used in many different and even counterintuitive ways; the most obvious distinction is where the influence over the working hours lies, that is between the "company-based flexibility" and the "individual-oriented flexibility"; (b) The review of the Legislation in force in the 15 European countries shows that the regulation of working times is quite extensive and covers (Council Directive 93/104/EC) almost all the various arrangements of working hours (i.e., part-time, overtime, shift, and night work), but fails to provide for flexibility; (c) According to the data of the Third EU Survey on Working Conditions, longer and "irregular" working hours are in general linked to lower levels of health and well-being; moreover, low (individual) flexibility and high variability of working hours (i.