Work culture

Work should be organised in such a way that the employee's health and safety is not put at risk. The work culture can be improved in a number of ways by, for example:

• Improving communications between management and staff in both directions.
• Consulting employees and their representatives about their jobs and any changes to them.
• Ensuring that jobs which pose a risk and which cannot be completely eliminated are rotated so that no individual spends long on that task.
• Ensuring that all employees have sufficient variety of tasks to enable them to use different muscles and postures and to make their job more satisfying.
• Providing adequate rest breaks to prevent the build up of fatigue and by ensuring that the breaks are taken.
• Identifying and removing stress factors from the workplace.
• Giving workers control over their pace of work and how they plan their day.
• Removing piece rate and payment by results systems that make earnings dependent on excessive work rates.
• Removing bonus, performance or monitoring schemes which make workers push themselves beyond their capacities. Having proper monitoring and reporting procedures for symptoms of RSI.