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1996 TUC REPORT
ON STRESS
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Background
Under
the 1977 Safety Representatives and
Safety Committees Regulations, trade
unions recognised by an employer have the
legal right to appoint safety reps,
volunteers elected from the workforce,
who have a series of legal rights to
information, consultation and time off
for training. There are about 200,000
safety reps overall.
This year, for the first tune, the TUC
surveyed safety reps through their
unions, with a series of questions aimed
at identifying there concerns and
experiences. The full results of the
survey will be released later this year,
and individual research projects based on
its findings will be carried out in 1997.
So far, 7,268 safety reps have responded,
from large and small organisations - over
1,000 from workplaces with fewer than 30
employees. They were asked to identify
the main hazard in their workplace of
concern to their colleagues.
Stress and overwork
The
most commonly reported concern was
occupational stress and overwork, further
confirmation that British workers risk
ill-health as a result of the hire and
fire culture which has led to widespread
job insecurity and pressure on employees
to work longer arid longer hours.
Overall, 68% of Safety Reps identified
stress as one of the top five health and
safety concerns of their work colleagues,
a much higher rating than for the next
most mentioned hazards (see below). This
figure did not vary greatly according to
the size of the workforce represented,
although nearly three quarters of safety
reps from organisations employing fewer
than 100 staff reported stress as a major
concern -73% in firms with fewer than 50
staff and 72% for those with 50-100
staff. The ratings for workplaces with
more employees were not significantly
smaller, with 64% and 65% of safety reps
from medium sized enterprises (100-200
workers and 200-1000 workers) reporting
stress as a major concern. And in the
largest organisations, with over 1,000
employees, 68% cited stress as a major
issue.
Stress and overwork clearly affects
workers in all sizes of firm, and in the
public sector as well as the private
sector.
Jobs which cause stress
Breaking
the responses down by industrial sector
suggests that the public sector has
higher levels of stress than the private
sector, suggesting that the impact of
years of public sector cuts has left
workforces demoralised and under
pressure. But other sectors show severe
cause for concern too.
An alarming 89% of safety reps in the
voluntary sector cited stress as a major
health and safety issue, the highest rate
of all sectors. Union reports from
members in the voluntary sector have
highlighted poor management practices,
bullying and, above all, the abuse of
voluntary sector workers' commitment to
their clients as sources of significant
problems in recent year. Voluntary
organisations are always under pressure
to deliver more services to disadvantaged
groups, with fewer resources, but this is
no excuse for piling the pressure onto
staff.
Education ranks second in the stress
ratings, with 80% (1,459) of safety reps
from the sector reporting it as a major
problem. Recent concerns about rising
class sizes, violence in schools, and the
extra workloads associated with
educational cuts and the introduction of
curriculum reforms have all been
identified as major sources of stress for
teachers.
Cuts in the finance sector as a result of
mergers and heightened competition are
thought to be the key factor in the high
level of stress reported by banking and
finance sector safety reps, with 78% of
them citing it as a top complaint of
their work colleagues.
Stress and overwork was the only health
and safety issue which attained the 50%
mark across all sectors. Of 13 identified
sectors, stress was cited by more than
70% of Safety Reps in the voluntary,
education, banking and finance sectors,
local government (74%), central
government (72'%), health services (71%),
leisure services (71% ) and transport and
communications (70%). Workers in
agriculture, distribution and hotels,
energy and water, and other services all
reported stress as a major problem.
What
causes stress?
The Health and Safety Executive has
issued guidance for employers on
preventing occupational stress which
identifies a number of potential causes,
including overwork and lack of clear
instructions. Stress can lead to a range
of physical ailments, such as heart
disease, mental problems, lack of sleep,
loss of resistance to illness, and even
allergies.
The TUC survey asked safety reps who
identified stress as a major problem to
explain in more detail what factors
affected their members.
The main cause identified was "new
management techniques", such as
quality circles and performance related
pay. These new techniques can limit a
trade union's ability to defend working
people from unreasonable demands made by
management. Rather than negotiating
changes with unions, managers may impose
the changes, which makes the individual
employees feel undervalued and without
any influence over their work patterns.
These are precisely the cause of stress
identified by she HSE.
Other causes of stress identified by
safety reps included long hours, having
major implications for health and safety
in Britain. Transport rated highest in
the long hours stakes, with 46% of
respondents citing hours of work as a
main concern. Previous TUC research has
shown that British workers work longer
hours than most other European workers,
and that, against the trend, the working
week in Britain is actually getting
longer. The European Union has enacted a
Working Time Directive which would place
limits on the working week, and the
British Government is trying to resist
implementing it (a judgement will shortly
be made on the case currently before the
European Court). The TUC's finding that
longer hours are a major source of
occupational stress shows that working
time is a health and safety issue, as the
European Commission and the TUC have
consistently argued.
Factors causing stress as a proportion of
Safety Reps identifying the factor as a
cause of stress in their workplace
* New Management Techniques 48%
* Long Hours 31%
* Redundancies 24%
* Harassment 21%
* Shiftwork 16%
* Bullying 14%
Note:
percentages do not total 100% because
more than one answer could be given.
The
top health and safety concerns by sector
The sectoral breakdown of the survey
shows the major concerns of workers in
each sector. These figures demonstrate
that other major problems facing workers
in Britain include Display Screen
Equipment (DSE), slips and trips, and
back strain.
Some 5 million people in Britain work
with DSE, also know as VDUs, with the
number increasing rapidly. Many people
using VDUs, will suffer problems such as
RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) if their
work station and seating is not properly
set up, and this explains why, across all
sectors, 43% of safety reps indicated
that VDU use was one of the major
concerns in the workplace. The TUC is
currently fighting proposals from safety
deregulators in Britain and Europe to
scrap European safety laws in DSE.
Slips and trips are, according to the
HSE, the major source of workplace
injuries, costing British business tens
of millions every year. The HSE has
recently launched a campaign to make
employers and workers more aware of the
dangers, but the TUC believes that much
more needs to be done by employers to
make sure that the number of workers
suffering injuries is reduced. Recently,
HSE figures were released which showed
that nearly two thirds of all injuries in
the hotel and catering sector were the
result of slips and trips - contributing
to a doubling of the injury rate in that
sector over the last decade. The TUC
survey shows that slips and trips are
also a major health and safety concern
for workers in construction and energy.
Major
safety issues by sector
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Sector
Agriculture and Fishing
Health Services
Distribution and Hotels
Banking and Finance
Voluntary Sector
Education
Manufacturing
Energy and Water
Leisure Services
Construction
Local Government
Central Government
Transport and Communication
Other Services |
Worst Problem
Chemicals or Solvents (67%)
Back Strains (74%)
Back Strains (74%)
Display Screen Equipment (83%)
Stress (89%)
Stress (80%)
Noise (74%)
Slips and Trips (65%)
Stress (71%)
Slips and Trips (70%)
Stress (74%)
Stress (72%)
Stress (70%)
Stress (62%)
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Second
Worst Problem
Stress (54%)
Stress (71%)
Slips and Trips (73%)
Stress (78%)
Display Screens (73%)
Slips and Trips (45%)
Machinery (62%)
Stress (60%)
Slips and Trips (55%)
Noise (67%)
Display Screens (63%)
Display Screens (69%)
Slips and Trips (64%)
Slips and Trips (58%)
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TUC
proposals for action
The TUC will by analysing the results of
the survey in much greater detail in the
next few months. But the main messages
are already clear.
* Occupational stress is a major health
and safety concern for working people
-across all sectors and in all sizes of
enterprise. New management techniques and
long hours are the major factors which
are causing people concern about stress.
* The Health and Safety Executive needs
to do more to ensure that employers
reduce the risks to their workforces. A
major TUC conference on union action to
combat stress at work is being held on 7
October 1996 to determine the agenda for
action.
* The government should abandon its
opposition to the Working Time Directive,
and accept that it is a health and safety
measure.
* On other hazards, the government should
drop its proposal to undermine the
Display Screen Equipment Directive, and
the HSE should consider ways to increase
activity to reduce slips, trips and
Calls.
TUC 1996 Survey of Safety Reps - initial
findings
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For the SOLUTION
click on the appropriate page below :-
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