Paris (France (AFP)) – The International Labor Organization warned in a recent report that psychological and social risks at work, such as stress, harassment and long work days, kill 840,000 people annually around the world.
This report on mental health in the work environment was published ahead of World Day for Safety and Health at Work, which falls on Tuesday.
According to estimates by the International Labor Organization, which are based in particular on data from the World Health Organization, work-related psychological and social risk factors lead to “about 840,000 deaths annually attributed to cardiovascular diseases or mental disorders.”
Noting that the origins of these diseases are often multifactorial, the report noted that several longitudinal studies “highlight consistent links between negative psychosocial exposures at work (…) and mental and cardiovascular health.”
The report identifies five key work-related psychosocial risk factors: stress, long working hours, exposure to harassment, an imbalance between effort and reward, and job insecurity.
The report recommends strengthening research to provide “systematic, consistent and globally comparable data” and more rigorous policy evaluation to disseminate effective approaches.
It also recommends improving cooperation between authorities responsible for occupational safety health, public health institutions and social partners to improve prevention and, in the workplace, to improve consideration of psychosocial risks on the part of managers, in cooperation with workers.
The report also addresses the annual economic cost of cardiovascular diseases and mental disorders associated with psychosocial risks, which is estimated at “1.37% of the global gross domestic product.”
