SiteIt's 5.40am on a Monday. Your phone buzzes. It's your day fitter. Back's gone, can't move, sorry.
You've got three fitters on a rotating pattern. One is on nights this week and finished at six. The other is on rest days. So the day shift has nobody, and the bottling line has a gearbox that's been making a noise since Thursday.
By 6.15 you've done what everyone does. You've rung the fitter on rest days and asked them to come in. They said yes. They always say yes.
Most small teams cover sickness this way. It works for a day or two. Then it quietly starts breaking people.
The first day: decide what really needs a fitter
Before you ring anyone, spend five minutes on the board. What has to happen today, and what can wait?
A sick day is a good time to be honest about your planned work. The PPM on the compressor can probably move a week. The guard repair on the wrapper can't, if the wrapper is running. Breakdowns can't wait either, and you don't know when they'll come.
So you need someone on site who can answer a breakdown. Everything else gets ranked. Write the list down and tell the shift managers. If you don't, they'll each assume their job is the priority.
Don't build the cover out of overtime alone
Asking the rest-day fitter in is fine once. Asking every day for a fortnight isn't.
The Working Time Regulations limit work to 48 hours a week on average, normally averaged over 17 weeks* (GOV.UK, maximum weekly working hours). Your fitters can opt out of that limit. It has to be voluntary and in writing, and they can't be treated unfairly for refusing. Each worker also has the right to 11 hours rest between working days* (GOV.UK, rest breaks). So a fitter who finishes a night at 6am can't be back in at 2pm to cover a late.
Staying inside the rules isn't the end of it either. HSE's guidance on fatigue says compliance with the Working Time Regulations "alone is insufficient to manage the risks of fatigue". It also notes that accidents and injuries have been found to be higher after a succession of shifts and when shifts are long (HSE, fatigue).
Think about what a tired fitter does at the end of their sixth 12-hour shift in a row. They skip the second lock. They reach in "just for a second". They miss the cracked weld they'd have spotted on Monday.
HSE makes one more point that's worth putting in front of your boss. Problems with overtime and shift-swapping "may indicate inadequate resource allocation and staffing levels". If every sick day gets covered with overtime, you're one fitter short all year round. The sick day just shows it. We look at this in more depth in overtime as cover: when it works and when it breaks people.
Watch who ends up working alone
When a team of three becomes two, someone often ends up on their own. A fitter alone on nights, or alone on a weekend shift.
HSE's guide on lone working names maintenance and repair staff among the people who work outside normal hours or apart from others. It also says some high-risk work may need at least one other person present, including work "near exposed live electricity conductors" (HSE, INDG73).
So if the cover plan leaves one fitter alone, set rules for that shift. No live fault-finding alone. A check-in call at set times. Somebody on site who knows where they are and what they're working on. Our post on lone working on nights goes through it.
The first week: know when it's going to be longer
For the first seven days, your fitter can self-certify. After more than 7 days off in a row, counting weekends and bank holidays, they need to give you a fit note* (GOV.UK, taking sick leave).
The fit note will say either "not fit for work" or "may be fit for work". The second one matters. A fitter with a bad back may be fine to do PLC fault-finding, permits and planning, even if they can't climb into a palletiser. Talk to them about what they could do, if they want to come back on lighter work.
If day eight comes and there's no clear return date, change how you're thinking. A sick day has become an absence, and an absence needs a plan that runs for weeks, and we cover that in long-term sickness beyond the first fortnight.
Who fixes it when it breaks?
Here's the question that keeps managers awake. If the gearbox on the bottling line lets go this week, who on site can change it?
On a small team, the answer is often one name. When that person is the one off sick, you've got a single-skill risk that you can't fix today.
So agree now what happens if a big job lands while you're short. Who's allowed to call outside help, and at what point? Our view is the same as for any breakdown: if it isn't diagnosed in 30 minutes, the shift calls. We set that out in the 30-minute rule. Put a cost on it too. An hour of the bottling line stood still will cost far more than a cover engineer's day rate.
What we'd do
Here's our view. A small team should never be one sick text away from a crisis. Have a cover engineer lined up before anyone's ill, someone who has had a site induction and knows where the isolators are.
Then the 5.40am text means one phone call, not six. Your rest-day fitter gets their rest day. If the cover goes past 12 weeks, the agency rules start to bite, so read up on what changes on day 85 before you get there.
What to do on Monday
- List the jobs on your board that must happen this week, and the ones that can move if someone's off.
- Check your fitters' hours for the last 17 weeks. Find out who's near the 48-hour average* and who has opted out in writing.
- Write a lone working rule for any shift that could end up with one fitter.
- Line up a cover engineer and get them inducted now, while nobody's off.
* Working time limits, rest periods and the fit note rule correct as of 31 August 2026. Check GOV.UK on working hours and GOV.UK on sick leave for the latest.