Shift Work

What shift work is

Shift work (العمل بنظام الورديات) is the organisation of work into successive periods that different teams take in turn, so as to cover hours that go beyond a single working day. In some activities those hours can extend to the whole of the day.

Where shift work is used, and why

Shift work is used where demand, or the nature of the operation, runs for longer than one working day can cover. Continuous manufacturing, healthcare, security and outlets that stay open for long hours are settings of this kind.

The purpose of shift work is coverage of time. It is not a way of lengthening the day of any one employee. The establishment gains hours of operation by adding periods worked by different teams, not by asking the same people to stay longer.

Shift work scheduling patterns

• Fixed shifts. Each team stays on the same period. It can be easier on the body than the other patterns, but it makes it harder to share the load fairly between teams.
• Rotating shifts. The teams take the periods in turn, which spreads the load but adds to the disruption of the daily pattern.
• Split shifts. The employee works two periods in one day with a long break between them, which can weigh more heavily on the employee than the other patterns in time lost.

The statutory side of shift work, which no schedule overrides

A shift schedule is an operational arrangement, but it does not release the establishment from the provisions on working hours, rest periods, the weekly rest and overtime set out in the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل) and its Implementing Regulation (اللائحة التنفيذية).

Article 98 of the Labor Law sets a ceiling on actual working hours under one of two alternative standards: eight hours a day where the employer has adopted the daily standard, or 48 hours a week where the employer has adopted the weekly standard. In Ramadan, actual working hours for Muslims are reduced under Article 98 of the Labor Law to no more than six hours a day or 36 hours a week.

Article 101 of the Labor Law provides that the worker is not to work more than five consecutive hours without a period for rest, prayer and meals of not less than half an hour on each occasion, and is not to remain at the workplace for more than twelve hours in one day. Under Article 102 of the Labor Law, those rest periods are not counted within actual working hours, the worker is not under the employer’s authority during them, and the employer may not require the worker to remain at the workplace during them.

The weekly rest day is Friday for all workers under Article 104 of the Labor Law, which allows the employer, after notifying the competent labour office, to substitute another day of the week for some of its workers while enabling them to perform their religious duties. The same Article 104 of the Labor Law places the weekly rest day on full pay, sets it at not less than 24 consecutive hours, and provides that it may not be replaced by a cash payment. Overtime is governed by Article 107 of the Labor Law, which provides that, where the establishment operates on the weekly standard, hours beyond those adopted for that standard are overtime hours, and that all hours worked on holidays and Eids are overtime hours.

Work by rotation (العمل بالتناوب) has a separate provision in Article 100 of the Labor Law. In establishments where the nature of the work requires work by rotation, the employer may, with the approval of the Ministry, employ the worker for more than eight hours a day or 48 hours a week, provided that average working hours, calculated over a period of three weeks or less, do not exceed eight hours a day or 48 hours a week. Both conditions under Article 100 of the Labor Law are required together: the approval, and the averaging window. The same provision is also set out under statutory working hours.

Royal Decree M/44 amended Article 107 of the Labor Law. That decree did not amend Articles 98, 100, 101, 102 or 104 of the Labor Law. These provisions are covered in our guide to working hours and the weekly rest in the Saudi Labor Law.

Why the statutory limits come before the shift work schedule

A schedule built on operational need alone and reviewed against the statute only after it has been applied is difficult to correct retroactively, because the shifts will already have been worked.

The correct order is the reverse. The statutory limits are set first, and the schedule is then drawn up inside them.

What a manager should measure in shift work

• The interval between two shifts for each employee, and not only the number of hours worked.
• The distribution of the heavy shifts, meaning nights and weekends, across the teams.
• The notice given for the schedule.
• The absenteeism rate by shift.

The number of hours worked does not show how much time separates the end of one shift from the start of the next. An employee can stay within the hours and still have little time between two shifts, so the interval is measured for each employee separately. For anyone who does night work, Clause Third of Ministerial Decision No. 18632 of 30/01/1441H requires a rest of not less than twelve hours between the end of one working day and the start of the next. That is a minimum interval between two working days, and it is a different rule from the ceiling of twelve hours of presence at the workplace in one day under Article 101 of the Labor Law. Decision 18632 and the other obligations it places on night work are set out under night shift.

Where the night and weekend shifts are concentrated on one group, that concentration is an undeclared burden carried by a single team. Measuring how those shifts are distributed across the teams brings the burden into view. One way of allocating shifts among staff is described under shift bidding.

A schedule that reaches the employee one day in advance puts on the employee the cost of organising their life around it, even where the number of hours it sets is within the statutory limits. The notice given for the schedule is therefore measured alongside the hours, and not in place of them.

The absenteeism rate by shift is a direct indicator that a schedule may not be sustainable.

What shift work scheduling cannot address alone

Night work, and continuous rotation onto it, is a burden that falls on the employee outside the working hours themselves. Scheduling does not remove that burden. It can lighten it, through the direction in which the rotation runs, the length of its cycle, and enough rest between cycles.

Whatever is overlooked in these arrangements does not show in the schedule itself. It can show later, in errors, in absence and in employee turnover.

This is an explanation of the concept and of the statutory provisions cited, not legal advice.