ANALYSIS OF THE PHYSICAL WORKLOAD OF SUGARCANE HARVEST WORKERS AS THE BASIS FOR DETERMINING THE LENGTH OF REST BREAK AT BONE ARASOE SUGAR FACTORY

Abstract

Arasoe Bone Sugar Factory is one of the sugar factories in Bone Regency, South Sulawesi. The production process at this company entirely uses machines that run automatically. However, the sugarcane harvesting activity is still carried out manually. All sugarcane harvesting activities result in physical workload on workers, especially when lifting sugarcane since in one loading, the workers are able to lift more than 30 kg of sugarcane. This activity is carried out repeatedly which results in fatigue on the harvest workers. The other factors that affect fatigue on the harvest workers are the harvested sugarcane plantations that can reach approximately 7 hectares in area and the work that lasts for 7 hours each day. This study aims to determine how much physical workload is experienced by sugarcane harvest workers and to determine how long the rest break is based on the physical workload that is obtained while working for the sugarcane harvest workers. The assessment of physical workload was carried out using the Cardiovascular Load (%CVL) method and the calculation of the length of rest break was carried out using a physiological approach. Based on the results of calculating the percentage of Cardiovascular Load (%CVL), it was discovered that all respondents experienced fatigue consisting of 5 workers with a %CVL of 60%, 13 people with %CVL of 80%, and 2 people with %CVL of 100%. Therefore, all respondents were included into the category of heavy physical workload. The optimal rest break is 80.79 minutes, while the rest break given is only 60 minutes. Hence, an additional 20.79 minutes of rest break is needed. The rest break of 20.79 minutes is used for spontaneous breaks, i.e., short break after the workload.