The importance of psychosocially induced stress for health and wellbeing is attracting more and more attention and awareness world-wide. Here follow some important manifestations of this awareness.
1. The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe 2001:
"Mental health problems and stress-related disorders are the biggest overall cause of early death in Europe".
2. The International Labour Office (ILO):
"In the Member States of the European Union, the cost of mental health problems is estimated to on average 3-4 per cent of GDP". If one assumes 3.5 per cent and calculates on the basis of the total GDP of the 15 EU Member States in 2003, the cost amounts to 675 billion euro annually.
3. The Council of the European Union (Ministers of Health) on stress and depression related problems (2001)::
- RECOGNISES that stress and depression related problems … are of major importance to all age groups and are significant contributors to the burden of disease and the loss of quality of life within the European Union.
- UNDERLINES that stress and depression related problems are common, cause human suffering and disability, increase the risk of social exclusion, increase mortality, and have negative implications for national economies.
- RECOGNISES that, while there are effective methods to prevent stress and depression related problems, there is a need to further develop research and methods for intervention.
- RECOGNISES the importance of promoting mental health through actions across all policies and activities.
- INVITES Member states to give special attention to the increasing problem of work-related stress and depression.
The European Commission's Communication on a New Community Strategy on Health and Safety at Work 2002 - 2006 (summary):
Safety and health at work now constitutes one of the European Union's most concentrated and most important social policy sectors. As early as 1951, the European Coal and Steel Community set about improving the safety of workers, a concern which the Treaty of Rome extended to all employed people. As a result, a substantial corpus of legislation aimed at raising standards of safety and health has developed since the late 1970s, and especially since the Single European Act was adopted in 1987.
It is because the EU can call on such an abundant source of material that it is crucial for the social policy agenda to set out a Community strategy. This strategy, which covers the period 2002-2006, has three novel features:
- It adopts a global approach to well-being at work, taking account of changes in the world of work and the emergence of new risks, especially of a psycho-social nature. As such, it is geared to enhancing the quality of work, and regards a safe and healthy working environment as one of the essential components.
- It is based on consolidating a culture of risk prevention, on combining a variety of political instruments - legislation, the social dialogue, progressive measures and best practices, corporate social responsibility and economic incentives - and on building partnerships between all the players on the safety and health scene.
- It points at the fact that an ambitious social policy is a factor in the competitiveness equation and that, on the other side of the coin, having a "non-policy" engenders costs which weigh heavily on economies and societies.
5. The European Framework Agreement on Work-Related Stress, signed by the European Social Partners - ETUC, UNICE, UEAPME and CEEP - on 8 October 2004.
This new European agreement marks a big step forward from the Framework Health and Safety Directive (EC 89/391) (Summary):- it acknowledges stress as a common concern of European employers, workers and their representatives;
- it includes work-related stress and its causal factors by name among the risks that should be prevented;
- it lays down a general framework for preventing, eliminating and managing stress factors (stressors), with specific reference to work organization, content and the working environment.
- these factors are detailed through a series of relevant examples that do not constitute a list which could have given rise to errors and omissions;
- the employers' responsibility is clearly spelled out, while participation and cooperation by workers and their representatives in the practical implementation of measures to reduce stress (i.e., tackling stressors are an essential part of the agreement.)
- the agreement is oriented towards action to tackle stress.
- stress that does not stem from the workplace or working conditions is taken into account if it creates stress inside the workplace ("imported stress"). (ETUC, 2004).
