President’s Welcome

Dear Working Time Society Members and Friends,

This past year was a time of particular change for our organization, as we adjusted our by-laws to differentiate the Working Time Society from the International Commission on Occupational Health’s Scientific Committee on Shiftwork and Working Time. This change allows both organizations to serve their missions while also working together to the betterment of shiftworkers globally. In doing so, we jointly announced the reinstitution of our biennial symposia, the next one occurring in Bertioga, Brasil: November 10-14, 2025. We look forward to seeing our old friends and colleagues and meet new ones at this event. In the interim, we will continue to hold our quarterly webinars, the next one to occur in February/March to highlight “The Handbook of Fatigue Management in Transportation: Waking up to the challenge” chapters and content our members helped assemble. Also, we have updated our website and social media presence (of which you hopefully noticed!) and invite you to log in and make sure your contact information is correct. Membership dues payments continue to be suspended until 2025, so if you were at the 2019 meeting in the USA, or have separately paid dues (or have been an ICOH member selecting the Shiftwork and Working Time Scientific Committee), you will remain a member until then without further payment. And lastly, we are having an election to determine a new board and cement a new leadership for the organization. I will have served two terms as president, and it is now time to turn over the reins to new leaders who have exciting new ideas and opportunities for the organization. I encourage everyone to read about the candidates and make your selections when the time comes.

As the current board term ends, I am proud to say that the Working Time Society has weathered the pandemic. We remained financial viable with 324 members, ethically sound, with new platforms and mandates to further our reach and improve our organization’s diversity and equity. We did this through direct outreach and by making as much content and activities as freely available as possible. We are a global organization, and as such, remain dedicated to serving the world’s shiftworkers through encouraging and highlighting the best science and practice in the field, and in growing the field by increasing its capacity, both in personal and professional backgrounds.