ABSTRACT
Polish membership in the European Union results in, among others, obligation to adjust working conditions to the European standards. In the context of the organization of labor protection system and the resulting current guidelines, emphasis is associated mostly with minimizing the risks and prevention of nuisances and the harmfulness of shift work and night work. Presently, shift work is one of the most effective forms of organization of working time. It can be applied in almost any workplace; associated with different systems of working time definition and work on Sundays and holidays. Given today’s competitive market and the specificity of the activity, the shift work is the solution that is increasingly becoming necessary for employers. It enables high utilization of machinery and workstations (Górny, 2011; Jasiulewicz-Kaczmarek, 2013). For employees biological consequence of working atypical hours is desynchronization of internal biological rhythms, which usually results in chronic fatigue syndrome, sleep problems, nervous system disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, and for women deregulation of the endocrine system. As far as biological and health outcomes of shift work are well described, the literature still lacks studies on employees’ attitudes towards the problem of shift work.
