INVESTIGATING ON-CALL WORK IN RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE MAINTENANCE NUNO MIGUEL FERNANDES CEBOLA, BSc, MSc. Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2014 1 ABSTRACT The use of on-call work in industry has now surpassed that of shiftwork and night work. Industries as a whole make use of on-call work daily as a way to maintain 24/7 operations whilst also reducing costs. Despite this, on-call work remains under- researched and no best practice or management guidelines are available. As the first substantial piece of human factors work examining on-call work in the rail industry, this thesis has the overall aim of increasing the understanding of on-call scheduling systems of work, and also to provide recommendations to the planning and management of on-call work in the rail industry which may also be applied in other industries. A semi-structured interview study with 72 rail maintenance on-call workers of Great Britain rail infrastructure owner and operator (Network Rail) explored on-call arrangements in place and the perceived unwanted consequences of this type of work. Anxiety, fatigue, and reduced well-being were perceived as the main consequences of working on-call. The findings also indicate that when discussing on- call there are three separate on-call situations; being on-call, receiving calls, and responding to calls; which influence the study variables differently. From the key themes identified initially an on-call questionnaire for managerial staff was developed and data from across the country generating 479 individual responses. A two-week diary study (one week on-call and the week after) with 26 participants aimed to collect real-time ratings. Results indicated that working on-call was perceived as a leading cause of stress, poor quality of sleep and fatigue. This is due to the inherent unpredictability of on-call work, which is the key differentiating factor between on-call work and other types of working-hours systems. Receiving and responding to calls were perceived as detrimental to general well-being both to workers and their families, fatigue, and performance. The work performed for this thesis allowed the development of the first on-call specific framework that identifies not only the key factors at play but also the relationships between them. It presents a set of principles or theories that other researchers can use to guide future research and that industry professionals can use to deliver more human friendly on-call work management processes and procedures. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like firstly to thank my PhD supervisors, Doctor David Golightly and Professor John Wilson. David (Dave), who dedicated so much of his time to read each chapter of this thesis (several times over), for his guidance both to the structure and content of each chapter, and for his continual support I am immensely grateful. Dave‘s good humour and his sensible and calm approach has made PhD supervision look easy. More than this, Dave showed genuine interest in the topic of this thesis, as only a parent of a small child who wakes up through the night could have; which could be, in its own way, referred to as ‘on-call work’. To Professor John Wilson, who, after a long battle with cancer, sadly passed away early last year. All who knew John personally (and many who didn’t) will know that he was indeed one of the great minds of the world of Human Factors. What some might not know is that despite his immense knowledge, and notorious ‘thick skin’ John always tried his hardest not to intimidate those of us with less knowledge or experience. John’s ability to see the greater picture and to solve many seemingly insurmountable problems almost instantly, allowed this work to get off the ground. It was truly an honour to have worked with, and indeed to have met, John. I would also like to thank Network Rail and in particular Theresa Clarke for giving me the opportunity to conduct this research. Also at Network Rail I would like to thank Mike Carey for providing some chatting breaks after around 6pm in Melton Street and for allowing this work to be part of my day to day work for most of last year. Thanks also to Emma Lowe and Fiona Kenvyn for all their support, knowledge, and guidance on the implementation of fatigue risk management in industry, which underpins the work conducted for this thesis. I would like to especially thank Kate Moncrieff for her surmounting good humour and laughs that kept me sane for most of the years of work that brought me here and for all her help in structuring the interview data discussed in Chapter 5. Her knowledge and ability to structure interview data was absolutely indispensable! To the remaining, current and alumni, members of Network Rail’s Ergonomics team I want to extend my gratitude for all the support, friendliness, knowledge, help, and so much more. I would like to name you all here but that would make for another section of the thesis! Thanks are also due to my fellow PhD students at Network Rail and Nottingham during these years, for their support and kind ears when a good ranting or complaining session was 3 needed. In sum, I thank them for sharing my pain! Thanks also to my examiners, Professor Sarah Sharples and Doctor Phillip Tucker for their time and effort in reviewing this thesis and for their constructive feedback. I am grateful for their thoughtful comments, their valuable suggestions and corrections to this work, which helped me to improve it in various aspects. From the bottom of my heart I thank also my parents, Alcibiades and Maria do Carmo, who, for so many different reasons, were indispensable along the years and continue to be. ‘Do fundo do coração agradeço aos meus pais que sempre me ajudaram e suportaram em todos os aspectos da minha vida, tanto emocionalmente como financeiramente. Sem eles não teria certamente conseguido chegado aqui!’ I thank them for their support, for always believing in me and for supporting my life choices, not to mention the financial support through the years! I am also in gratitude to my Granddad, Agostinho Fernandes, for his continual support and work ethic that was both an inspiration and a reminder that no task is too big to tackle. ‘Agradeço ao meu avô pelo seu contínuo apoio e pela sua ética de trabalho que tanto me ajudou ao longo dos anos’. I also thank my sister, Ana Rita, my friends (too many to list here but you know who you are!), my extended family, and my dog, Pachorras, for providing support, friendship, distraction, and laughter that I needed (and many times when I potentially didn’t) across these four years. I am also in debt to my fellow tangueros and tangueras, who many times provided a much required distraction from work. Your good humour, laughter, and dance steps were able to neutralize even the most stressful of days! I am also in debt to Nicole Kirkham (parent-in-law to be) for proofreading the two longest chapters of this thesis without which, submission would have had to be postponed. Thank you! Finally, last but not least, I thank my fiancée Justine Kirkham-Myers (soon to have a reduced surname) for her unconditional support, encouragement, emotional nourishment and love, the proofreading of most chapters, and pterodactyl cakes! Not to mention all of the other delicious dishes that fuelled me through many nights and weekends of work. Without whom this work would, undoubtedly, have been completed months, if not years, earlier! Admittedly with much reduced work-life balance. Thank you all! This thesis is dedicated to all of you although I’m sure none of you will be in a huge rush to read it (again for some of you)! 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION 18 1.1 Background 18 1.2 Aims and Objectives 20 1.3 Key theoretical areas of interest 21 1.4 Structure of the thesis 23 CHAPTER 2 – RESEARCH CONTEXT AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ON-CALL WORK AS A RESEARCH TOPIC 25 2.1 Chapter summary 25 2.2 Introducing On-Call 25 2.3 The Rail Industry in Great Britain 28 2.4 The identification of on-call as a research topic 33 2.4.1 Review of the Management of Fatigue and Working Hours Standard NR/L2/ERG/003 33 2.4.2 Safety behaviour analysis at Clapham Delivery Unit 34 2.4.3 Maintenance working hours audits. 35 2.4.4 Summary 36 2.5 Regulations 37 2.5.1 European working time directive 93/104/EC 37 2.5.2 Managing Fatigue in safety critical work Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (ROGS) 38 2.5.3 Hidden Limits 39 2.5.4 Management of Fatigue and Working Hours Standard NRG/L2/ERG/003 39 2.5.5. The 1999 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation 40 2.5.6 Process for the management of fatigue and control of working hours standard for employees undertaking safety critical work NR/L3/MTC/MG0224. 41 2.6 On-call work as a research topic 42 2.7 Chapter Conclusion 44 CHAPTER 3 – WORKING SCHEDULING IN LITERATURE 46 3.1 Chapter summary 46 3.2 Background 46 3.3 On-call work 46 3.3.1 Effects of on-call work 47 3.3.2 On-call research summary 49 5 3.4 Sleep 50 3.4.1 Sleep phases 51 3.4.2 Two process model of sleep: Circadian rhythms and the homeostatic sleep drive 52 3.4.3 Sleep debt and wakefulness 54 3.4.4 Sleep Disruption 55 3.4.4.1 Sleepiness 56 3.4.4.2 Performance 57 3.4.4.3 Well-being 58 3.4.5 Sleep research summary 59 3.5 Fatigue 61 3.5.1 Sleep, Fatigue, and Performance 63 3.5.2 Stress and Fatigue 66 3.6 Shiftwork 69 3.6.1 Sleep loss / sleep debt 70 3.6.2 Individual differences 71 3.6.3 Shiftwork negative outcomes 73 3.6.3.1 Shiftwork and fatigue 73 3.6.3.2 Shiftwork and Performance 76 3.6.3.3 Shiftwork