HOURS OF WORK 工时

WHAT DOSE IT MEAN? 这意味着什么？

This standard is meant to protect workers from overwork (exceeding legal or other work hour standards) and not enough rest or free time excessive work can lead to fatigue, higher risk of accidents, lower productivity, and possible damage to workers’ health and wellbeing.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?  你需要做些什么？

Making sure that workers work a reasonable number of hours recognizes the importance of rest and providing time for other aspects of a worker’s life such as family, leisure, educational and vocational pursuits factories must ensure

that workers are not overworked by:

• limiting work hours to acceptable levels that are agreed to by the workers and in accordance with local law

• Making overtime voluntary

• Providing sufficient time off to rest and to enjoy other aspects of a worker’s life

BUSINESS BENEFITS OF LIMITING HOURS OF WORK

Multiple research studies have shown that longer working hours have an adverse effect on worker health, owing to fatigue and work stress. These effects keep labor productivity below its potential. Studies also show that high overtime levels can cause poor employee morale, which can affect productivity and absenteeism. Working when fatigued can result in mistakes and production of inferior products. Well-reste workers generally work faster and make fewer mistakes.

Additionally, studies have found that long working hours can contribute to an increase in the risk of work accidents as well as damage workers’ health.

DOCUMENTATION 文件记录

Proper documentation is important for providing evidence of compliance with the law and the standards above

You must keep the following documents on file and available to auditors and other authorized personnel:

• time records and payrolls on file for the period of time as required by law

• documentation on use of excessive overtime and other exceptions to normal work hour schedule caused by

unexpected events, e g , power failure, disaster etc

• document the training on hours of work and overtime policies and procedures

• leave requests and approvals

• Voluntary overtime agreements, acknowledgements, and sign-up sheets

• Production records and/or CCtV recordings

BEST PRACTICES

CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAM

Create a cross functional team accountable for keeping work hours under control. Involving staff from different functions within a company, provides important insight into the root causes of excessive work hours. There should be regular meetings between production staff and HR or other department that tracks work hours. This team will work on planning and balancing the workload across the facility, and implementing more efficient production processes (e.g. lean) that will reduce overtime hours and improve product quality. The team should develop relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In developing these KPIs the following

should be considered:

• How will the monitoring be done?

• What data and metrics will be monitored?

• What reports will be generated (for example, total overtime hours per month, business process root causes, recommended solutions)?

• How will the information be used to control overtime?

VOLUNTARY OVERTIME PROGRAM

Create a voluntary overtime program that includes the following components.

• A written policy stating that workers may be asked to work overtime from time to time, but that workers can refuse overtime without fear of penalty or harassment. This policy should be posted prominently and understood by all management.

• A work plan that gives workers at least 24 hours’ notice when scheduling overtime work