Night worker health assessments

Employers must ensure that night workers whose work involves special hazards or heavy physical or mental strain do not work more than eight hours in any 24-hour period. This includes work that a risk assessment carried out under the Management Regulations (see Chapter 2) shows to involve a significant risk.

Employers must not assign workers to night work unless the worker has been offered a free health assessment. These should be available at appropriate regular intervals and can be provided by an occupational health doctor or GP. If a doctor advises an employer that a worker’s health problems are likely to be connected with night work, and it is possible to transfer them to suitable work that is not night work, the employer must transfer the worker to daytime work (Regulation 7(6)). However, there is no absolute protection for workers, other than pregnant women and disabled people, if there is no suitable work to transfer to. This means an employer may be able to dismiss a worker fairly in these circumstances.