The influence of evening work on workers and companies nonetheless little taken under consideration | EUROtoday

It was a giant victory for Martine. In 2023, this former nurse at Sarreguemines hospital realized that her breast most cancers, detected in 2009, was acknowledged as an occupational illness by the Moselle medical council. The finish of a protracted battle for the retiree, which highlighted the dangerousness of evening work: Martine had labored on name for twenty-eight years.

This recognition has confirmed the hyperlink between work tempo and the looks of tumors, talked about by quite a few research. “The International Agency for Research on Cancer considers that night work has a probable carcinogenic effect”confirms Thierry Amouroux, spokesperson for the National Union of Nursing Professionals.

In explicit, the disruption of sleep and exercise schedules, which is able to disrupt circadian rhythms – the interior clock. “Our profession is seriously affected by this problem”, continues Mr. Amouroux. The resolution in Moselle might snowball. Many workers affected by the identical pathology are actually contacting the CFDT Mineurs de Lorraine, which supported Martine in her battle.

Breast most cancers is a part of the lengthy checklist of confirmed or possible “health risks” linked to atypical working hours. Cardiovascular issues, diabetes, hormonal disturbances, weight achieve, psychological issues… Night, shift, night or on-call work has deleterious results on the physique. By desynchronizing our organic clock and on the identical time accumulating a continual sleep debt, workers are placing their well being in danger.

Stress and irritability

At the identical time, their effectivity is lowered throughout their exercise. Fatigue impacts focus and application, simply as it could actually promote stress and irritability. “Within companies, we note, as a result, a higher risk of accident, but also an increase in absenteeism, indicates Philippe Cabon, teacher-researcher at Paris Cité University. Another problem: presenteeism. Employees go to work in a poor state of health, which will lead to a drop in productivity and more errors in the execution of tasks. »

These phenomena are observed with even more attention as the use of atypical working hours increases. “We have entered a “24/7” society which places away the day-night alternation, summarizes Mr. Cabon. Previously, this primarily involved the transport sector and trade. Services are actually more and more affected: the opening hours of shops are growing, on-call duties are being put in place at evening, in IT for instance…”

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