Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Global cities
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Stress at work: countering Europe’s new pandemic

Claes-Mikael Ståhl 3rd April 2023

Occupational stress has become endemic. It damages workers, their families, businesses and economies.

stress, health and safety,occupational, work
As with almost half of all workers in Europe today, in Modern Times Charlie Chaplin’s character was subjected to severe time pressure or work overload

Around half of European workers report exposure to psychosocial risks (PSR) in their workplaces—that’s up from 25 per cent in 2007—contributing to some 50 per cent of all lost working days. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the European Parliament, the Eurocadres federation and other trade union and health-related organisations insist that the European Commission should act swiftly by drafting an EU directive to counter PSR.

The increase in work-related stress can be traced to new technologies changing the pace of work, the pandemic and the significant rise in home and teleworking creating isolation and affecting people’s ability to disconnect, work overload and time pressures, lack of participation in decision-making, poor management of change, growing job insecurity, discrimination and abuse.   

In a Flash Eurobarometer survey in 2022, The European Agency for Health and Safety at Work (EU-OSHA) found that 46 per cent of respondents were subject to severe time pressure or overload of work. About a quarter (26 per cent) referred to poor communication or co-operation within their organisation and 18 per cent to a lack of autonomy or influence over the pace of work or work processes. Violence or verbal abuse from customers or patients affected 16 per cent of respondents and 7 per cent reported harassment or bullying at work. In its latest report published this year, the EU-OSHA also highlighted the link between workplace stress and heart disease.

Stress and depression can destroy livelihoods and even lead to suicide. And women are even more exposed to psychosocial risks than men—a gender dimension in the assessment, prevention and treatment of this disease is thus essential.


Become part of our Community of Thought Leaders


Get fresh perspectives delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter to receive thought-provoking opinion articles and expert analysis on the most pressing political, economic and social issues of our time. Join our community of engaged readers and be a part of the conversation.

Sign up here

No legislation

Currently, there is no legislation covering PSR at EU level. The framework directive on health and safety (89/391/EEC) places on employers ‘a duty to ensure the safety and health of workers in every aspect related to the work’. But with no specific reference to work-related stress, it does not address the assessment and management of PSR.

Non-binding instruments, such as the social partners’ Framework Agreement on Work-Related Stress (2004), have limited impact on national legislation, which varies significantly among member states. Consequently, workers in different countries do not enjoy consistent minimum protection.

The EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work, launched in 2021, also lacks ambition in tackling PSR and musculoskeletal disorders. It presents mental health as an issue for individuals and fails to address the role of work organisation. The initiatives mentioned (such as Horizon 2020 projects) focus on individual interventions and healing, rather than collective action and prevention.

Mere guidance on the risks is, alas, highly unlikely to offer workers adequate protection. Individual remedies are only one element in mitigating PSR and do not cover the many risks related to work and employment conditions. The European Trade Union Institute has collected a huge amount of evidence in this field.

The strategic framework urged the social partners to take action and update existing agreements relating to PSR, but this had already been addressed through a joint fact-finding seminar during the European social partners’ past autonomous work programme. The 2004 framework agreement has been on the books for almost 20 years, but awareness-raising activities, guidance and exchange of best practice have had limited impact, demonstrating the clear need for European legislation. EU-OSHA research shows legal obligation is the main motivation for employers to address health-and-safety issues (for 89 per cent in 2019, up from 85 per cent in 2014).

Urging a directive

In 2019, Eurocadres, with the support of the ETUC, launched the ‘End Stress’ campaign to demand legislation at EU level to address the ‘stress epidemic’ sweeping Europe. A year ago, with its report A new EU strategic framework on health and safety at work post 2020, the European Parliament echoed the call.

Specifically, the parliament urged the commission:

to propose, in consultation with the social partners, a directive on psychosocial risks and well-being at work aimed at the efficient prevention of psychosocial risks in the workplace, such as anxiety, depression, burnout and stress, including risks caused by structural problems such as work organisation (ie poor management, poor work design or not properly matching workers’ knowledge and abilities with the assigned tasks).


Support Progressive Ideas: Become a Social Europe Member!


Support independent publishing and progressive ideas by becoming a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month. You can help us create more high-quality articles, podcasts and videos that challenge conventional thinking and foster a more informed and democratic society. Join us in our mission - your support makes all the difference!

Become a Social Europe Member

EU legislation should incorporate five vital elements:

  • Workers and trade unions must participate in developing, implementing and monitoring measures to prevent work-related PSR. Health-and-safety committees should be strengthened or established where they do not yet exist.
  • Employers must be under a clear obligation to assess, mitigate and work to eliminate psychosocial risk factors and put in place preventive measures, paying special attention to vulnerable workers such as those with disabilities.
  • Employers should be required to set targets and objectives to reduce work-related stress, in dialogue with employees’ representatives, and results should be evaluated at company, national and European level. Indicators must be developed to allow employees and employers to evaluate improved working conditions and the successful implementation of social targets in the workplace. 
  • All workers must have access to training, with trade unions playing a key role in designing and implementing training and best practices. Managerial staff should receive specialised training to equip them to tackle work-related PSR.
  • The directive should protect workers who raise concerns about psychosocial risks in the workplace. Labour inspectorates need further funding and training to carry out their role of safeguarding employees. 

Misunderstood, stigmatised

The growing number of working days lost through PSR has an economic as well as social cost. In Belgium alone, in 2020 insurers spent €1.6 billion on depression and burn-out cases.

Yet, as with many other issues surrounding mental health, stress and depression are often misunderstood or even stigmatised. A recent survey in the United States found many workers were afraid to talk to their employers about their mental health. When viewed as an organisational rather than an individual issue, PSR and stress can and should however be prevented or managed, just like any other workplace health-and-safety risk.

According to the World Health Organization, depression is already the leading cause of ill-health globally and a major contributor to the overall burden of disease, requiring urgent action. The European Union should offer an example to the rest of the world and take urgent steps to protect workers from PSR.

Claes Mikael Ståhl
Claes-Mikael Ståhl

Claes-Mikael Ståhl has been deputy general secretary at the European Trade Union Confederation since September 2021. He deals with trade, mobility, employment, cohesion funds and occupational health and safety.

You are here: Home / Economy / Stress at work: countering Europe’s new pandemic

Most Popular Posts

Russia,information war Russia is winning the information warAiste Merfeldaite
Nanterre,police Nanterre and the suburbs: the lid comes offJoseph Downing
Russia,nuclear Russia’s dangerous nuclear consensusAna Palacio
Belarus,Lithuania A tale of two countries: Belarus and LithuaniaThorvaldur Gylfason and Eduard Hochreiter
retirement,Finland,ageing,pension,reform Late retirement: possible for many, not for allKati Kuitto

Most Recent Posts

prostitution,Europe,abolition Prostitution is not a free choice for womenLina Gálvez Muñoz
Abuse,work,workplace,violence Abuse at work: who bears the brunt?Agnès Parent-Thirion and Viginta Ivaskaite-Tamosiune
Ukraine,fatigue Ukraine’s cause: momentum is diminishingStefan Wolff and Tetyana Malyarenko
Vienna,social housing Vienna social-housing model: celebrated but misusedGabu Heindl
social democracy,nation-state Social democracy versus the nativist rightJan Zielonka

Other Social Europe Publications

strategic autonomy Strategic autonomy
Bildschirmfoto 2023 05 08 um 21.36.25 scaled 1 RE No. 13: Failed Market Approaches to Long-Term Care
front cover Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI European Collective Bargaining Report 2022 / 2023

With real wages falling by 4 per cent in 2022, workers in the European Union suffered an unprecedented loss in purchasing power. The reason for this was the rapid increase in consumer prices, behind which nominal wage growth fell significantly. Meanwhile, inflation is no longer driven by energy import prices, but by domestic factors. The increased profit margins of companies are a major reason for persistent inflation. In this difficult environment, trade unions are faced with the challenge of securing real wages—and companies have the responsibility of making their contribution to returning to the path of political stability by reducing excess profits.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

The future of remote work

The 12 chapters collected in this volume provide a multidisciplinary perspective on the impact and the future trajectories of remote work, from the nexus between the location from where work is performed and how it is performed to how remote locations may affect the way work is managed and organised, as well as the applicability of existing legislation. Additional questions concern remote work’s environmental and social impact and the rapidly changing nature of the relationship between work and life.


AVAILABLE HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound Talks: does Europe have the skills it needs for a changing economy?

In this episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound’s research manager, Tina Weber, its senior research manager, Gijs van Houten, and Giovanni Russo, senior expert at CEDEFOP (The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training), about Europe’s skills challenges and what can be done to help workers and businesses adapt to future skills demands.

Listen where you get your podcasts, or for free, by clicking on the link below


LISTEN HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The summer issue of the Progressive Post magazine by FEPS is out!

The Special Coverage of this new edition is dedicated to the importance of biodiversity, not only as a good in itself but also for the very existence of humankind. We need a paradigm change in the mostly utilitarian relation humans have with nature.

In this issue, we also look at the hazards of unregulated artificial intelligence, explore the shortcomings of the EU's approach to migration and asylum management, and analyse the social downside of the EU's current ethnically-focused Roma policy.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube