With Federal oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC,) regulation 10 CFR 26 defined stringent “fitness for duty” requirements for all nuclear power facilities, subcontractors and other affiliated organizations which are “authorized to possess, use or transport formula quantities of strategic special nuclear material.” The regulation addressed several employee-related safety concerns – from drug and alcohol use to workforce scheduling – and is aimed at enhancing the safe operation of these facilities by ensuring that employees are alert, focused and unimpaired.

From a workforce management perspective, Subpart I – Managing Fatigue is of particular importance. Section 26.205 mandates that applicable personnel’s work hours can’t exceed:

• 16 work hours in any 24-hour period
• 26 work hours in any 48-hour period
• 72 work hours in any 7-day period

The regulation also defines specific break and time off periods within scheduled shifts. (Additional details can be found on the NRC website.)

The WorkForce Software Solution:

WorkForce Software’s EmpCenter Fatigue Management (FM) module takes the complexity out of compliance. EmpCenter FM tracks work eligibility based on defined work limits, ensures eligibility on an employee-by-employee basis, and proactively notifies managers, supervisors and employees before a scheduling violation occurs. In addition, EmpCenter FM automatically generates a compliance report and maintains a complete audit trail to verify the organization has taken the proper measures to adhere to any and all work rules surrounding time- and schedule-based elements of “fitness for duty” regulations. Through this process, HR teams can remove themselves from the complex and time consuming – yet critical – tasks of manually tracking rules, schedules, assessments and waivers.

The enforcement date for the NRC’s ‘automate or shut-down’ mandate for the fitness for duty regulation was August 15, 2009. In the months leading to this date, WorkForce Software was selected simultaneously by 17 individual nuclear utilities and three nuclear contractors, representing nearly 70% of all nuclear power facilities and utilities in the United States – all of which had to be live on EmpCenter FM simultaneously on August 15, 2009. Today EmpCenter FM is in use at 51 nuclear reactor units in 34 different locations by over 90,000 employees and contractors.

Additional Resources:

• Full text of the NRC 10 CFR 26 regulation http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part026/full-text.html