Fatigue and Impairment: Designing Safer Schedules and Supervisory Controls

Treat fatigue as impairment and control it with scheduling, stop-work authority, and verification.

WorkSafeBC’s fatigue campaign reminds employers and workers to protect workers from fatigue risk and frames fatigue as an occupational safety issue. Fatigue increases error likelihood and can interact with heat/cold stress and long driving or high-consequence tasks.

Build a fatigue risk management approach using task-based triggers: consecutive shift limits, night work controls, rest period expectations, and job rotation. Implement supervisory checks: pre-task fitness-for-duty discussions, stop-work authority, and incident trend reviews. Integrate with driving-for-work controls because fatigue is a major crash contributor in operational contexts.

Use evidence: scheduling records, fatigue hazard assessments, training, and post-incident corrective actions. This aligns with due diligence by showing fatigue was anticipated and controlled reasonably.

• Actionable takeaways

  Treat fatigue as impairment; implement schedule and rest controls; empower supervisors/workers to stop work when fatigued and document interventions.