date: 11 October 2002 embargo: Not for use before 00.01 hrs, 14 October 2002

Attention: Industrial and health correspondents, health and safety press

TUC launches campaign to ‘tackle the hassle’ of workplace stress

The TUC will today (Monday) launch a major campaign to prevent stress at work as European week of health and safety begins. At a conference in London focusing on prevention of stress and bullying, the TUC will urge workplace reps to ‘tackle the hassle’ by putting their management and their workplace through a ‘TUC stress MOT’.

Every year stress causes 270,000 people a year to go sick, costing British companies around £538 per employee and across Europe, stress affects 40 million people every year, at a cost to the EU of at least 20 billion euros in lost time and health costs alone.

To coincide with the conference and the safety week, the TUC is also publishing a leaflet Tackle the hassle for safety reps. This urges them to use the TUC’s stress MoT to identify which factors are causing the most amount of stress in their particular workplace. It also says that if their employer has no specific stress policy then they should suggest one is developed.

TUC General Secretary John Monks said: 'Stress causes real mental and physical illness. Burn-out Britain is bad for working people and bad for business. But the causes of stress can be controlled and the risks managed. We want managers and unions to work in partnership to identify any problems and solve them together. Our ‘stress MOT’ is designed to catch the problem early, before people get badly hurt. No one should have to suffer stress at work - it’s time to tackle the hassle.'

Keynote speakers at the TUC conference include:

• Amicus joint General Secretary Roger Lyons

• Health and Safety Commission member Abdul Chowdry

• Engineering Employers’ Federation Chief Medical Officer Dr Sayeed Khan

• Professor Cary Cooper from Manchester University

• The Work Foundation’s Angela Ishmael

A calendar of trade union events for European health and safety week is on the TUC website at http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-5630-f0.cfm

Events organised by unions during the week include:

• Amicus have declared Tuesday 15 Ban bullying at work day. The union will be holding a launch of a campaign pack and calling for support for the Dignity at Work Bill.

• From 8.00am on Tuesday 15 October transport sector members of the TGWU in Sussex and Kent will be at a number of locations in their region highlighting issues surrounding long working hours, a major cause of stress, and driver fatigue. The TGWU members are to distribute leaflets and give information on the working time directive to organised and non-organised drivers.

• On Wednesday, Tom Mellish from the TUC will speak at Managing Stress in HE and FE - Where next? in Birmingham. Organised by Birmingham University in association with the Occupational Health Service at University College, London, the conference is supported by the HSC’s Higher and Further Education Advisory Committee (HIFEAC) and the TUC, as well as Amicus, ATL, AUT, GMB, NASUWT and NATFHE.

• UNISON has declared Wednesday National Inspection Day. The aim is to encourage UNISON safety reps to carry out their legal right to inspect their workplace for health and safety problems.

Notes to Editors:

All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

A series of TUC rights leaflets are available on our website and from the know your rights line 0870 600 4 882. Lines are open every day from 8am-10pm. Calls are charged at the national rate.

Contacts:

Media enquiries: Liz Chinchen on 020 7467 1248 or 07699 744115 (pager) or email lchinchen@tuc.org.uk

Other enquiries: Owen Tudor on 07788 715261

Produced with financial assistance from the European Agency for safety and health.

Press release (700 words) issued 14 Oct 2002