Psychosocial risks in the workplace, including stress, harassment and excessive working hours, are linked to an estimated 840,000 deaths globally each year, the International Labour Organization has warned in a new report.
Published ahead of World Day for Safety and Health at Work, the report highlights what it describes as a “major and growing threat” to workers’ health worldwide.
Drawing largely on data from the World Health Organization, the ILO estimates that these risks contribute to approximately 840,000 deaths annually, mainly due to cardiovascular diseases and mental health disorders.
The report, titled Working environments and psychosocial risks: Global trends and action pathways, notes that long-term studies consistently show strong links between negative psychosocial exposure at work and both mental and cardiovascular health outcomes.
Key workplace risk factors
Five major psychosocial risk factors are identified: stress, long working hours, exposure to violence or harassment, imbalance between effort and reward, and job insecurity.
According to the findings, 35% of workers globally work more than 48 hours per week, while 23% have experienced some form of violence or harassment during their careers.
Certain groups are more vulnerable, including migrants, people with disabilities, older workers, young people, those in precarious employment, and workers in the informal economy.
Changing nature of work
The report also highlights the rapid transformation of working environments due to teleworking, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, noting a “profound shift” in psychosocial conditions worldwide.
At the same time, it points to increasing recognition of the need to prevent psychosocial risks, with more countries treating the issue as a national priority.
Call for coordinated action
The ILO calls for stronger research efforts to generate regular, harmonised and comparable global data, allowing for more rigorous evaluation of policies.
It also recommends closer cooperation between occupational health authorities, public health institutions and social partners, as well as greater attention by employers to psychosocial risks in collaboration with workers.
The report estimates that the annual economic cost of cardiovascular diseases and mental health disorders linked to these risks amounts to around 1.37% of global GDP.
Source: CNA