Fatigue, Excessive Working Hours + Unsafe Work Organisation

The risk

Fatigue is a systemic and safety-critical risk facing transport workers and transport supply chains. It is one of the leading contributors to accidents that result in injury and death to workers, harm to passengers and the public, and damage to vehicles, cargo and critical infrastructure. Fatigue-related incidents also expose companies and supply chain actors to significant legal risk and liability, including regulatory breaches, civil claims and criminal liability where unsafe organisation of work contributes to serious harm.

Research across transport modes, including recent ITF civil aviation sector findings, demonstrates that fatigue is often compounded by long and irregular working hours, insufficient rest periods, unpredictable scheduling and tight delivery or service windows, which creates the conditions for fatigue to accumulate and for workers to experience chronic tiredness, reduced alertness, reaction time and decision-making capacity. 

Evidence from across transport sectors shows fatigue is primarily created by how work is organised, scheduled and commercially driven. Pricing pressure, constantly changing schedules, unrealistic turnaround expectations and productivity-based payment systems, algorithmic management and performance targets can push workers to operate close to or beyond the limits of their physical and cognitive capacity. These cumulative pressures reduce vigilance and contribute to both immediate safety incidents and long-term physical and mental health impacts.

Fatigue risks are intensified in subcontracted and precarious work arrangements, where workers have limited control over schedules, fear loss of income or penalties for refusing work, or lack safe channels to report fatigue. In such environments, fatigue frequently goes underreported until it results in serious safety incidents.

Due to its structural causes, fatigue must not be treated as an individual worker’s responsibility – but as a predictable outcome of unsafe work organisation within transport supply chains.

 

What companies and supply chain actors must do

Companies and supply chain actors have a responsibility to identify, prevent and mitigate fatigue risks.

As part of HRDD, companies must assess how business models contribute to excessive working hours, insufficient rest and unsafe work organisation. This can include pricing models, contractual terms, scheduling practices, productivity targets and algorithmic management systems. Commercial and operational decisions must not incentivise unsafe levels of work, unrealistic delivery or service expectations, or performance targets that undermine safe fatigue management. There should be absolute limits to working hours, and workers must have the right to disconnect. This must extend throughout contracting chains.

Effective prevention requires ongoing engagement with workers and their trade union representatives, including cooperation with the ITF and its affiliated unions, to identify fatigue risks, monitor working time practices and ensure that protections and corrective action are applied consistently across supply chains. Companies must ensure that workers can report fatigue and refuse unsafe work without penalty, retaliation or loss of income.