A non-repetitive work does not involve repetitive movements but cannot be regarded as a recovery period of the upper limbs because it involves some form of physical load. Moreover, the recovery includes the breaks themselves and the work that is not repetitive but that can indeed be considered as a recovery period, as there is no significant physical load for the upper limbs (for example, a visual control).

This distinction is important to calculate the number of working hours without adequate recovery, which is a variable from which the recovery multiplier is obtained (RcM) used in the OCRA index calculation.