Problem of fatigue haunts electricity industry

Fatigue is prevalent across the electricity industry and it must be tackled now if we are serious about achieving Net Zero writes, Sue Ferns, Prospect senior deputy general secretary.

We know that the energy industry is facing a transformational period, where challenges such as ensuring a Just Transition, shifting to renewables and the imperative to meet our Net Zero targets are all reshaping the sector.

The way we produce, store and consume our energy, particularly electricity is all changing.

Amid these tumultuous times, we cannot lose sight of something rather more fundamental: the welfare and wellbeing of the skilled professionals who work within it.

Health and safety has always been of critical importance in the electricity industry where the consequences can be severe, or even fatal.

The coronavirus pandemic only underlined the tremendous and crucial role played by frontline energy workers and it was gratifying that the industry came together to reaffirm its commitment to safe working.

However, there are many aspects to health and safety and the issue of fatigue is fast approaching a boiling point that the electricity industry must now urgently address.

What is fatigue?

First, we should address some of the common misconceptions around fatigue. It is not about feeling tired at the end of your working day.

There is no settled definition of fatigue in the workplace. The Health and Safety Executive describes it as “the decline in mental and/or physical performance that results from prolonged exertion, lack of quality sleep or disruption of the internal body clock”.

While the number of hours an individual has worked, and the time of day they worked them, have a significant bearing on fatigue, it can also be a product of the physical, mental and emotional demands of the job; working conditions; organisational culture; and other issues.

Moreover, the knock-on effects of fatigue spill over into other health and safety risks, such as leading to slower reactions, a reduced ability to process information and underestimating potential hazards.

At root, fatigue is a health and safety hazard that needs to be managed like any other. That involves a thorough process of identifying risks and removing, or mitigating, them as far as possible.

Too fatigued to work safely

Prospect represents more than 22,000 workers in the energy sector; around half work in the electricity supply sector.

Our members tell us that they are really struggling with fatigue, which is potentially putting themselves and their colleagues at real risk.

In a recent survey we found that:

• Nearly one in three respondents said that at some point they had felt too fatigued to work safely
• Nearly 60% said they often or very often work more than their contracted hours
• Only 30% said they always get the legal minimum of 11 hours rest after being called out.

The dreadful personal and professional impact of fatigue was reinforced at a roundtable event that Prospect hosted with several reps just before Easter.

One person revealed: “As a manager, I can monitor my workers’ hours but only the week after. As you might expect, I’m constantly going back and asking them why they’re working so much? There’s a culture where the management think we’re OK and if there’s a problem we’ll stop. But it’s not true. We are working too many hours.”

Another said: “There are definite links with mental health and fatigue. I’d consider myself fatigued at the moment and I have work related stress. I had an hour’s sleep at the start of the night and a couple of hours at the end. I know that I’m not performing at my best today. We pay a lot of lip service towards mental health but we don’t really do an awful lot about improving it.”

Across the stories that we heard at the roundtable, there were some common contributory factors causing fatigue, such as being on standby and the pressure to work overtime, an ageing workforce that is struggling with long hours and a skills crisis resulting in staff shortages. None of these factors will be of little surprise to anyone familiar with the energy sector.

The pandemic also exacerbated these pressures, such as the need for staff to self-isolate or who have fallen ill themselves.

Perhaps most alarmingly, our members told us they have very little control over their working hours. There was very little monitoring or managing of fatigue, and a strong reliance on ‘self-disclosure’ – which is particularly harmful when there are incentives to work longer hours to receive overtime payments.

Our concerns on fatigue are supported by research conducted by the Health & Safety Laboratory on behalf of the Energy Networks Association. The ENA’s Powering Improvement programme aims to have zero life-changing injuries, or major injuries, in the UK electricity industry by 2025.

The research looked at two key roles working within electricity networks, Senior Authorised Persons (SAPs) and Competent Persons (CPs), and how their interaction and coordination could work better to eliminate incidents and accidents.

In its findings, under ‘opportunities for improvement’ the report said leadership could:

“Acknowledge and understand the potential for fatigue amongst managers and SAPs/CPs and the impact this can have on SAP and CP performance. Review fatigue risk management practices in the industry to identify any steps that can be taken to reduce the likelihood of fatigue related accidents and optimise SAP/CP alertness.”

What needs to be done?

This report is welcome, and it is positive that the problem of fatigue is being acknowledged. But this must be the start of meaningful engagement and action throughout the industry.

Clearly, compliance with working time regulations is not enough on its own to prevent fatigue. Employers should not think that mere adherence to those regulations is enough to satisfy a duty of care to their workers.

Prospect believes that employers should adopt a risk-based approach to fatigue, which ensures that risks are identified, understood, monitored and controlled.

There must be proper planning around fatigue and thinking through in advance how it is going to be managed. Each situation has its own characteristics, which need to be assessed to decide the best way to improve health and safety.

A healthy workforce

As stated at the beginning, I do not underestimate the profound challenges facing the energy sector right now. There is much work to be done and we will need a skilled and healthy workforce to do it.

Renewing and operating our electricity network so we can achieve Net Zero is a legacy that we will be able to pass onto future generations. We must not let the issue of fatigue put it all at risk.

Prospect’s guidance to fatigue in the energy sector can be downloaded from the Prospect Library.