Extended Hours
Detrimental to Returning Injured Workers
[Posted 01/24/2008]
Current
rehabilitation efforts tend to emphasize the ability
of returning workers to perform tasks associated
with their jobs, but not when or how long recovering
employees will work each day.
new research, however, suggests that rehabilitation
specialists should factor work schedules into their
assessments and planning when guiding injured
workers back to full-time employment.
According to an Ohio State University study,
workers who are injured on the job have a harder
time returning to employment if their schedules
routinely require them to work extended hours.
Those who work more than 12 hours per day or 60
hours per week, in particular, are at the highest
risk of losing their jobs when compared to injured
workers returning to conventional eight-hour day
shifts and 40-hour work weeks.
Study
results indicated that injured employees working
extended hours per week were 70% more likely to
quit and 81% more likely to be fired than were
their counterparts returning to jobs with
conventional schedules. The research is published
in a recent issue of the Journal of Occupational
Rehabilitation.
“What’s lacking in America is an integrated process
to get an injured person back to work that takes
into account multiple factors. Right now, there are
too many silos in the rehabilitation process. A
more sophisticated model is needed,” said lead
study author Allard Dembe, Associate Professor and
Chair of Health Services Management and Policy at
Ohio State University.
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