Objectives-Due to recent changes in legislation on occupational health and safety, a national monitor on stress and physical load was developed in The Netherlands to monitor (a) risks and consequences of stress and physical load at work, (b) preventive actions in companies to reduce these risks, and (c) organisational and environmental variables that facilitate preventive actions. Methods-Information was gathered from employers, employees, and employees' representatives. The monitor was used with a nationally representative sample of companies in industry, wholesale trade, and banking and finance, 782 companies in total. Results and conclusions-The information from the employees, aggregated at the company level, was not found to be correlated with that from the employer from the same companies. Although many employers do recognise risk factors for both physical load and stress as a problem they often seem to underestimate the problem when compared with employees or their representatives. This is particularly the case for psychosocial risk factors. Also, the perception of outcome measures, especially employers who consider emotional exhaustion to be work related, were fewer than the employees' representatives of the same organisation. Preventive measures on physical load are much more popular than measures against stress. It is the responsibility of the employer to take more preventive action of all kinds. They need to recognise risk factors as problems and health outcomes to be related to work. Employees of larger companies should participate with employers to consider eVective measures, and more use should be made of support at branch level. For specific preventive measures, specific predictors emerged. Except for measures to prevent work stress, information from employees did not suYciently contribute to the initiation of preventive measures in the workplace. (Occup Environ Med 1998;55:73-83)

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This article reports a field study of a shift roster change in a large steel producer. The changes in the roster are threefold: (1) from backward rotating to forward rotating; (2) from rather slow (three) to fast rotating (two consecutive shifts); (3) the number of days off after the night shifts was changed from two to three. Company data cover 1 year before and 1 year after the implementation of the new roster and involve all employees in the five-shift system (4600 workers) and all daytime workers (1450 workers) in technical and maintenance jobs as a control group. The study reports a decrease in absence figures (particularly on midterm sickness absence) of in total 0.6%. Furthermore, improvements in health indicators are presented, such as fatigue, musculoskeletal complaints, relationship work and health and workload in the year after implementation of the new roster. These positive effects are stronger for older workers (50 þ years old). The results were significantly more positive for the shift workers compared with the control group. Statement of Relevance:This article reports an evaluation study of the largest continuous roster change in the Netherlands for decades: 4600 employees at Corus changed from a slowly backward rotating schedule to a fast forward rotating schedule. The effects are mainly positive (0.6% less absence in the first year; less fatigue). A positive association with age was also found: older workers benefit more.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to understand how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cope with the need for labour flexibility. Most previous studies ignore the labour flexibility practices of SMEs, especially in times of economic growth and tight labour markets. Design/methodology/approach -A multiple case study approach is applied, with ten Dutch SMEs located in one small province with a similar labour market. A survey was executed as an intake, followed by 48 interviews with the entrepreneurs, HR and other managers and employees, and two focus groups in each company. The findings are based on an analysis of the approved case descriptions. Findings -SMEs, like big companies, do not rely on one flexibility practice. Volume fluctuations are countered with all flexibility strategies, the mix fluctuations and the product innovations are mostly countered with flexible functions and flexible production technology. In general, the data suggest that flexibility strategies of SMEs can be characterised as ad hoc, reactive and with a short-term orientation.Research limitations/implications -Future research should include other sectors and regions enabling to generalise the findings. Future research should have a longitudinal design to include the pathway dependencies of flexibility practices. Practical implications -This study identifies the need to analyse flexibility demands; reduce flexibility demands before investments in flexibility practices; create production process flexibility; invest in labour flexibility practices only after the first three steps are taken; and develop basic and more advanced levels of flexible contracts, flexible functions and flexible working times. Originality/value -This study contributes to the authors' knowledge on the use of labour flexibility practices in SMEs. In addition, it brings empirical data on how these labour flexibility practices relate to the needs for flexibility and how they relate to other sources of organisational flexibility, such as a flexible market approach and flexible production technologies. Dynamic capabilities should include the suggested operationalisation of the flexibility practices.

Older workers and irregular working hours – a literature study Older workers and irregular working hours – a literature study This article explores the suggestion that older people would be less tolerant to shift work. Field studies on age-shift work interaction effects on sleep, fatigue, performance, accidents, and health were reviewed. We also reviewed studies on age-shift (morning, afternoon, night) and age-shift system (roster) interactions. In ten studies shift and day workers were compared and interactions with age were addressed. Three studies reported more problems in older people, two studies reported opposite results, while in five studies no significant age-shift work interaction was observed. From across-shift-comparisons (six studies) we deduced that older compared to younger workers have more sleep problems with night shifts, while the opposite is true for morning shifts. This review did find some differences between older and younger workers, but did not find evidence for the suggestion of more shift work problems in older workers.