Night Work in Regard of the Enactments of Some European Countries

Our society can not function without people working around the clock. Nearly 20 per cent of the working poulation in Europe is engaged in shift work. In every european country there are certain regulations that apply to employees who works at night and extra legal protection for people classed as night workers. All european countries enactments follow almost the same rules as for this matter, only in some small aspects they can vary. In every country it is first of all an employer´s duty to comply with the night work regulations and create suitable working conditions for own workers. Generally stated, night workers generally should not work more than 8 hours in any 24 hour period and must be offered a free health assessment before they begin night work duties and on regular basis after that. Also workers under 18 are not permitted to work nights although there is an exception to this rule if they prepare themselves for their future occupation. There are also some other rules which should be followed in regard of the protection of night workers. It is also good to emphasized that night work should be used only extraordinaly, because a human´s body clock was designed to be awake during daylight hours and to sleep at night and many night workers experience difficulties in adapting to the changes in working at night and sleeping during the day.