What this is
What is a contractor fatigue and hours check?
What is a contractor fatigue and hours check?
A host-site verification that a visiting contractor crew's hours, rest and conditions are within acceptable limits during extended or overnight work. It is not the contractor's own fatigue system, and not a record of a confirmed breach; it is performed by the site during the work, before conditions deteriorate.
Why does the host site need to check a contractor's hours at all?
The contractor's employer owns the duty to manage its own workers' fatigue, but the host site controls the schedule. A site setting an eighteen-hour-day pattern and leaving fatigue entirely to the contractor's paperwork is managing a risk it created without checking the result.
How is this different from a fatigue risk assessment?
A fatigue risk assessment quantifies risk from a schedule design before the work is scheduled. This check verifies the lived reality of an extended job already underway: actual hours, actual rest, and whether fatigue signals appear in the crew doing it.
Scope
When is a contractor fatigue and hours check required?
This check verifies a contractor's actual hours and conditions during extended work, not a fatigue risk assessment done in advance, a regulated driving-hours review, or a substitute for the contractor's own fatigue programme.
Use this template when
- A contractor crew is working an extended shutdown, turnaround or overnight campaign
- Shift length or days worked exceed what the site would schedule for its own people
- Night work, travel time or remote accommodation is part of the arrangement
- Early fatigue signals are visible: self-reports, errors, near misses late in a shift
- The shutdown plan or contract requires this evidence before extended hours continue
Do not use it for
- Fatigue Risk Assessment, which quantifies fatigue risk from a schedule design using a scored method, typically before the work is scheduled rather than in progress
- Hours of Service Log Review, which reviews regulated driving hours logs against a specific regulation, not a general shutdown schedule
- Contractor Permit Compliance Check, which verifies a permitted job against its permit conditions at the work point
- Workload Review, which assesses the host site's own workforce; a visiting contractor crew sits outside that register
- The contractor's own fatigue management system, which remains their employer's duty and is not satisfied by this check passing
Compliance mapping
Which ISO 45001 cl.8.1 requirements does this satisfy?
ISO 45001 puts contractor fatigue partly on the host site, not solely on the contractor's own system, because the site controls the schedule. The clauses below are about that host-side duty.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1.4.2 | OH&S criteria for contractors established, communicated and applied before and during their work | Header |
| ISO 45001 cl.6.1.2.1 | Hazard identification proactive and ongoing, covering work organisation and human factors including fatigue | Hours |
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1.1 | Operating criteria established for planned, temporary and non-routine work, including extended and shift patterns | Hours |
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1.2 | Elimination of hazards and reduction of risk applied to how the schedule is designed, not only PPE or instruction | Conditions |
| ISO 45001 cl.5.4 | Consultation and participation on OH&S matters extended to workers performing work on the organisation's behalf | Signals |
| ISO 45001 cl.9.1.1 | Monitoring and measurement of control effectiveness, including leading indicators such as errors and near misses | Signals |
| ISO 45001 cl.10.2 | Nonconformity identified and corrective action taken when a control is found inadequate | Result |
What it does not cover
- Fatigue Risk Assessment, which quantifies fatigue risk from a schedule design using a scored method, rather than checking hours actually worked mid-job.
- Hours of Service Log Review, which reviews regulated driving logs against a specific regulation such as FMCSA 395, and belongs to drivers rather than a shutdown crew.
- Contractor Permit Compliance Check, which verifies a permitted job against its own permit conditions at the work point.
- Workload Review, which is the host site's assessment of its own workforce, not a visiting crew.
- The contractor's fatigue management programme itself, which remains their employer's duty; this check verifies the outcome, not the programme.
Global
Contractor Fatigue and Hours Check requirements by country
The duty to manage a contractor's fatigue is near-universal in substance, but which party it formally attaches to differs by regime.
OSH Act General Duty Clause; multi-employer worksite policy (OSHA CPL 02-00-124)
No fatigue-specific standard, but a controlling or host employer can be cited for a recognised hazard it created or controlled, even where the exposed workers are a contractor's own employees.
An eighteen-hour-day schedule left to the contractor's own compliance does not remove the host site's exposure under the multi-employer doctrine.
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 s.3; Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 reg.11-12
A duty of care extends to persons not in the employer's own employment, and employers sharing a workplace must cooperate on risks affecting each other's workers.
The host site cannot discharge its s.3 duty by pointing to the contractor's paperwork; coordinating on the schedule is the expected control.
ISO 45001:2018 cl.8.1.4.2
Requires OH&S criteria for contractors to be established and applied by the organisation using them, not solely relied on from the contractor's own management system.
Auditors will ask for evidence hours were checked during the work, not only that prequalification was collected beforehand.
How to complete it
How to complete a contractor fatigue and hours check, step by step
The form prompts for hours, conditions and signals in three separate blocks. What decides whether the check caught something is how those three read against each other, not whether each was individually ticked Yes.
A roster says the shift is twelve hours. Travel time to a remote site, an overrun before handover, and the informal extra hour nobody logs are the hours actually worked. Ask the crew, don't just read the plan.
A fatigue policy is evidence of intent, not of what this job's schedule allows. The limits that bind this shutdown are the ones in the contract or work order. Answering both fields the same way without checking the contract is the most common way this check passes on paper and fails in practice.
Fatigue reported by the crew, rising errors and near misses late in a shift appear before a formal limit is exceeded, because limits are drawn conservatively. A check scoring well on Hours but showing Partly in Signals is a crew heading toward a breach, not one that avoided one.
An extended campaign changes over its own duration: day four looks nothing like day one. A single record at the start verifies the plan, not the outcome. Running it again partway through, and again if signals appear, turns it into a control rather than a gate.
What auditors find
Most common contractor fatigue and hours check findings
This check is easy to complete badly, because most fields can be answered from the shutdown plan rather than what the crew is actually experiencing.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Hours recorded and available relies entirely on the contractor's own timesheet, with no independent check by the site. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1.4.2 | Cross-check against site access logs, gate records or supervisor observation, not the submission alone. |
| Contractor has its own fatigue policy answered Yes, but limits written into the contract answered No or Partly. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1.4.2 | Treat the contract term as the binding control; escalate before extended hours continue if it was never added. |
| Crew would report fatigue safely answered Yes with no corroborating evidence on file. | ISO 45001 cl.5.4 | Ask a crew member directly during the check rather than accepting the supervisor's assurance on their behalf. |
| Signals show Partly answers on errors or near misses late in shift, but result band recorded as Pass. | ISO 45001 cl.9.1.1 | Weight leading indicators explicitly; a Partly in Signals should cap the result band regardless of the Hours score. |
| Only one record exists for a multi-week shutdown, completed day one. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1.1 | Schedule repeat checks at defined points across the campaign, not a single record at mobilisation. |
| Action Required marked No despite one or more failed items in Hours or Conditions. | ISO 45001 cl.10.2 | Derive Action Required from the individual field results, not as a separate, overridable judgement call. |
Case in point
Case in point: the check that passed on day one
A plant shutdown brought in a contractor crew of forty for an eleven-day turnaround. On day one the contract owner completed the check: hours recorded, shift length within the twelve-hour limit, rest adequate, accommodation a reasonable distance. Every Hours and Conditions item scored Yes, the contractor confirmed its own fatigue policy, and the record was filed as the shutdown's fatigue evidence.
By day eight, shifts had crept to fifteen and sixteen hours against a slipped delivery, night meals had gone irregular because catering only covered day shift, and a dropped-tool near miss went unrecorded because nobody had reason to reopen a check that had already passed. The plan had changed under pressure; the check, completed once and treated as a singleton, had not moved with it.
The template
The template, field by field
The form exactly as it installs. Every field, option, score and conditional rule is editable, and the links to other templates come with it.
6 sections
- Reference
- CON-039
- Archetype
- Checklist
- Record ID
- CFH-2026-000
- Scoring
- Within limits
- Direction
- High is good
- Singleton
- No
- Basis
- ISO 45001 cl.8.1
- Links
- Links Shutdown plan, Workload review
- Tags
- Contractor, Fatigue
- Sections
- 6
- Fields
- 42
- Follow up fields
- 3
- Repeating sections
- 0
- Links out
- 5
Header
9 fieldsCheck ID*
Auto sequence. Format CFH-2026-000.
The record's own ID. Other templates point at this value.
Status*
Drives who this goes to next.
- Planned2 pts
- In progress2 pts
- Complete3 pts
- Deferred0 pts
- Open0 pts
- Closed3 pts
- Overdue0 pts
Date and Time*
Completed By*
Site*
Site ID*
Format SITE-000.
Links to FDN-001 Site ID
Contractor*
Vendor ID*
Format VEN-0000.
Links to FDN-005 Vendor ID
Shutdown Crews Working Eighteen Hour Days
Your fatigue policy covers your own people. The contractor crew brought in for a shutdown is often working far longer, and nobody is counting.
Hours
6 fieldsHours Recorded And Available*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Shift Length Within Agreed Limit*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Consecutive Days Within Limit*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Rest Between Shifts Adequate*
- Yes3 pts
- Marginal1 pt
- No0 pts
Night Work Included*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Travel Time Considered*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Conditions
6 fieldsAccommodation Reasonable Distance*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Break Facilities Available*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Meals Available On Nights*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Work Rotated Between Crew*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Safety Critical Tasks Timed Well*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Supervision Present On Nights*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Signals
6 fieldsFatigue Reported By The Crew*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Errors Or Rework Increasing*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Near Misses Late In Shift*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Crew Would Report Fatigue Safely*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Contractor Has Own Fatigue Policy*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Limits Written Into The Contract*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Related records
2 fieldsShutdown ID
The shutdown these hours were worked on.
Links to MNT-070 Shutdown ID
Workload Review ID
Where fatigue findings feed our own workload review.
Links to HLT-024 Review ID
Result
13 fieldsItems Assessed*
Excludes anything marked N/A.
Items Failed*
Score Percent*
Calculated on submission. High is good. N/A items leave the denominator.
Result Band*
- Pass3 pts
- Caution1 pt
- Fail0 pts
Completeness Percent*
How much of the template was actually answered. A high score on a half completed form is not a high score.
Action Required*
Raise the action record, then enter its reference here.
- No2 pts
- Yes0 pts
Priority
- High0 pts
- Medium1 pt
- Low3 pts
CAPA ID
Format CAPA-2026-00000.
Links to FDN-014 CAPA ID
Action Owner
Contract Owner*
Signature*
Site Manager*
Second Signature*
CON-039 · record IDs look like CFH-2026-000 · Links Shutdown plan, Workload review
Open in KnowellaRun it with agents
From a document you fill in to a programme that runs itself
The check itself is a five-minute form. What protects the crew is whether a failing answer on day eight reaches someone who can change the schedule, rather than sitting unreopened until the shutdown ends.
Holds this check against the contractor register, prompts the repeat check at defined points across the job, and routes a fail to the contract owner rather than filing it.
Cross-references fatigue signals here against near misses logged elsewhere on the same shutdown, so a pattern is visible even if each check passed.
Watches the shutdown plan for schedule slippage or added days, flagging when it has moved past the conditions the last check verified.
Surfaces a Partly or No in Signals as a priority item ahead of the result band, and holds any write to the linked workload review for approval.
This template lives in KnowContractor — contractor management. Prequalification, approval, induction, permits and performance.
Meet KnowContractor→Glossary
Contractor Fatigue and Hours Check definitions and key terms
- Shutdown or turnaround
- A planned period of extended, often continuous work to overhaul plant that is normally running, typically staffed with contractor crews on extended shifts for a fixed duration.
- Fatigue
- Reduced physical and mental capability from inadequate rest, extended wakefulness or workload, increasing the likelihood of error independent of skill or intent.
- Circadian low
- The early-hours period when natural alertness is lowest regardless of prior sleep, making night work inherently higher risk than equal-length day work.
- Work-rest cycle
- The pattern of time worked against time off across consecutive shifts, determining whether recovery sleep can actually occur.
- Host-site duty
- The obligation on the organisation controlling a schedule to manage risks to workers it does not directly employ, including a visiting contractor crew.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about contractor fatigue and hours check
Isn't a contractor's fatigue the contractor's own employer's responsibility?+
The contractor's employer owns the duty to manage its own workers' fatigue, but the host site controls the schedule the crew actually works to. Where the site sets the hours, it carries exposure for the outcome, which is why this check exists as a host-side instrument.
How often should this check be repeated during an extended shutdown?+
More than once. A single check at mobilisation verifies the plan, not what happens as the schedule comes under pressure. Repeat it at defined points, and again immediately if fatigue signals appear.
What if the contractor already has its own fatigue management policy?+
That answers whether the contractor intends to manage fatigue, not whether this job's schedule respects it. Check separately whether those limits were written into the contract; a policy that never reaches the work order does not constrain the schedule.
What counts as adequate rest between shifts for a night-working crew?+
Enough time to travel, eat, sleep and travel back, not just the gap on paper between shift end and start. Accommodation distance and meal availability matter because a technically adequate rest period with a long commute and no food is not rest.
Who should complete this check?+
The contract owner, because they hold the commercial relationship and the authority to act on a fail. A safety function can advise, but the person who can change the schedule needs to own the record.
What happens after this check fails?+
Action Required should be marked Yes and a corrective action raised before extended hours continue, not filed for review after the shutdown ends. A fail during an active shutdown is a live schedule problem, not a lagging record.
Keep going
Related templates and programmes
Industries this is written for
Programmes this belongs to
Used together in Fatigue and Shift Work
Area Ergonomic Screening
A quick first pass across a whole area to find which tasks need a full assessment
Manual Handling Screening
A rapid check of manual handling tasks to band them by risk
New Task Ergonomic Screening
Screens a new or changed task before it goes live
Shift Fatigue Screening
Screens work patterns for fatigue risk, covering shift length, rotation, breaks and consecutive days
Screening Follow Up Log
Tracks which screened tasks went on to full assessment and which did not
Work Rest Cycle Assessment
Assesses whether recovery within and between tasks is enough for the load being carried
More in Contractor Safety
Contractor Permit Compliance Check
Checks that a contractor working under permit is doing what the permit says, at the work point
Contractor Emergency Drill Participation
Records contractor involvement in an evacuation or emergency drill, including whether they were accounted for
Contractor Near Miss Report
Records a near miss involving or observed by a contractor on site
Written and reviewed by
Siddarth Singh
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Knowella
Certified Safety Professional and industrial and systems engineer with more than a decade inside food supply chain, freight and manufacturing operations. This page was written against the current text of the standards it cites, not against secondary summaries of them.
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Board of Certified Safety Professionals
- MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- MS and BS, The Ohio State University, Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Six Sigma Black Belt
Sources and last review. Reviewed 16 August 2026 against:
- ISO 45001:2018 clauses 8.1.4.2, 6.1.2.1, 8.1.1, 5.4, 9.1.1 and 10.2
- OSHA multi-employer worksite policy, CPL 02-00-124 (US)
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 s.3; MHSWR 1999 reg.11-12 (UK)
- HSE guidance on managing shiftwork and fatigue risk
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction’s regulator.