Stress will become the biggest cause of workplace ill-health by 2020, it was claimed yesterday amid calls for employers to take action.
Announcing details of a new initiative aimed at tackling workplace stress, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) said recent Scandinavian research found a positive link between workplace stress and heart disease.
A separate report accompanying the HSA launch estimated that workplace stress was costing a company with 1,000 employees €1.34 million a year on average through absenteeism, overtime and replacement costs.
The report further cited research in the UK showing that 68 per cent of non-manual workers, and 42 per cent of manual workers, had reported stress-related sickness absence.
Under the initiative Work Positive - Prioritising Organisational Stress, the HSA is urging companies to carry out risk-assessments covering well-known causes of workplace stress, "thereby helping managers eliminate these risk factors in their organisation".
Speaking at the launch of the scheme in Dublin, Minister of State for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen said:"There are risks in all workplaces and it is important that where stress on workers exists it is identified as such, assessed, and a strategy put in place to have it dealt with."
Among the top causes of stress were bullying and harassment, unreasonable workloads, inflexible working regimes, and poor line management policies.
The HSA is rolling out the programme with its Northern counterpart, the Health Service Executive Northern Ireland, under a cross-Border co-operation initiative.
