Fatigue Management Strategy for Shift Workers in the Air Traffic Control

Abstract

Recently, shift work, including night shift, has been widely implemented in modern society. These include workplaces that have to work 24 hours a day for production processes, such as petrochemicals, power plants, and steel industries, as well as industries necessary to secure public services such as gas and electricity. In particular, workers in the aviation sector are mostly engaged in shift work due to the nature of their 24 hours of continuous work. Most shift workplaces comply with legal work regulations, but they fail to take into account workers’ fatigue and focus only on compliance with regulatory requirements. Specifically, shift work needs to provide minimum guidelines for workers’ safety and health. Therefore, this study analyzed and reviewed the current status of shift work in the air traffic control field, where shift work is essential, and presented guidelines for the safety and health care of shift workers. First of all, the international shift work guidelines and domestic laws related to shift work were reviewed, and the characteristics of the shift work system in the air traffic control field were reviewed. For the guidelines, we discussed the shift method, shift speed (direction), shift work hours and hours, night work, and other considerations.

Keywords

• shift work
• night work
• fatigue
• air traffic control