Khaberni - The International Labour Organization warned in a recent report that psychological and social hazards in the workplace, such as stress, harassment, and long working days, lead to the death of 840,000 people annually around the world.
This report on mental health in the workplace was released prior to the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, which falls on Tuesday.
According to estimates particularly based on data from the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization states that workplace-related psychological and social risk factors lead to "approximately 840,000 deaths annually attributed to cardiovascular diseases or mental disorders," according to the AFP news agency.
While noting that the origins of these diseases are often multifactorial, the report highlights that many longitudinal studies "consistently illustrate the link between negative psychological and social exposures at work (...) and mental and cardiovascular health."
The report identifies five main psychological social risk factors associated with work: stress, long working hours, exposure to harassment, imbalance between effort and reward, and job insecurity.
The report recommends strengthening research to provide "regular, consistent, and comparable data globally" and to assess policies more accurately to promote effective methods.
It also recommends enhancing cooperation between authorities responsible for occupational health and safety, public health institutions, and social partners to improve prevention and, at the workplace, to better address psychological and social hazards by managers, in collaboration with workers.
The report also addresses the annual economic cost of cardiovascular diseases and mental disorders related to psychological and social hazards, estimated at about "1.37% of the global GDP."
