News

Union’s Safety reps report high workplace stress

The TUC’s biennial survey of safety representatives has reported today, 26th October, and shows that stress is the most frequently identified hazard in most workplaces. Three in five (60%) of safety representatives identified overwork or stress as a concern, similar to the previous survey and higher than in earlier surveys.

Key findings

• Stress is cited in more than half of all sizes of workplace, from 53% in workplaces with under 50 employees and rising to 66% of those in workplaces with over 1,000 employees;
• Stress is more prevalent in the public sector, where two thirds (66%) of safety representatives identified it as a major concern, compared to 47% of representatives in the private sector;
• In 10 out of the 14 economic sectors, stress was the top concern for safety representatives who work in them, and in the top five in 12 out of 14 sectors.

The study goes on to show that Central Governement (81%), Education (74%), and Health services (69%), have significantly higher levels of concern than the average. Stress was also the primary concern, irrespective of the size of the workplace, with 53% reporting their stress as their primary hazard for companies with less than 50 employees, rising to 66% for companies with more than 1000 employees.

Geographically, London was noteable for psycho-social hazards, with 68% reporting concerns about overwork and stress, compared with 46% in Scotland. The Scottish figure shows an improvement over the 62% figure in the 2006 survey.

The full survey can be found here

© 2008 stress and culture audits.