Greater risk of receiving a work injury during the night shift

The human body has been shown to be at its best operating on a daily cycle that follows the cycle of the sun. No matter how much workers get used to working the night shift, their physiologies continue to treat the night as a time to sleep, leading to impaired sleep during the day and impaired performance during the night at work. This is likely to be a central reason for the fact that, in any given job, a work injury is more likely to occur on the night shift than during the day.

Studies have shown that the kind of sleep deprivation experienced by someone unused to the night shift can cause worse impairments of hand-eye co-ordination than being too drunk to drive under UK law. With this statement in mind, it is not surprising that work injury figures increase during a night shift. Notable incidents whose factors have been claimed to include fatigue caused by shift-work include the Exxon Valdez running aground and the explosion at Chernobyl.

The Health and Safety Executive suggests that ways of staying alert during a night shift can include exercising gently before and during the shift (if possible), saving the most stimulating work for the parts of the shift in which you are most drowsy, keeping lights bright, and communicating with fellow workers.

The last suggestion not only keeps you awake, but your fellow workers too, helping to reduce the risk of an industrial accident causing you a work injury through someone else's abilities being impaired by the demands of working at night.

Work injury compensation claims from night-shift accidents.
If you have suffered a work injury during a night shift, you could be entitled to make a compensation claim. It is possible that the responsibility for the accident could lie with your employers, as employers are required to manage the risk of a work injury caused by the fatigue of shift-work.

If this is the case, you could make a no win, no fee claim for damages to cover personal injury, the cost of treatment, and lost earnings. YouClaim's panel of personal injury solicitors all offer a no win, no fee service, and a 100% compensation promise, ensuring that you have no fees, no deductions, and no disbursements to pay, whether your claim is successful or not.

Our work injury advisors are easily reached. Simply phone 0800 10 757 95, or find us on screen through our e-chat window; alternatively, you can arrange for one of our advisors to call you at a convenient time by filling out our call-back form.