date: Friday 29 October 2004 embargo: 00:01 hrs Tuesday 2 November

Attention: Industrial, health, employment, economics correspondents. Safety, jobs and careers media, news and planning desks

Stress levels at work are rising

The number of workers suffering from stress has increased this year, according to a survey released today (Tuesday) by the TUC. Three in five workers (58 per cent) now complain of being stressed at work, an increase of two per cent from 2002. The main reasons cited for stress are increased workloads, change at work, staff cuts, long hours and bullying.

The fifth biennial TUC survey of safety reps reveals that stress levels vary in workplaces of different sizes and between the public and private sector. The bigger the workforce the greater the levels of stress. Overall 58 per cent of workers complained of stress at work, however that figure rose to 63 per cent in businesses with over 1,000 employees.

Stress at work costs the UK economy £7billion each year through sick pay, lost production and NHS costs and accounts for 6.5 million lost working days. Stress is greater in the public sector, nearly two thirds (64 per cent) of public sector workers complained of stress at work, compared to less than half (48 per cent) in the private sector.

Ahead of Stress Awareness Day on Wednesday 3 November the survey of 4,521 safety reps offers little evidence that anything is being done to tackle the main causes of stress at work. The top five causes of stress, workloads, change, cuts in staff, long hours and bullying, are as big a problem in 2004 as they were in the previous survey from 2002.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'The fact that people are more stressed than ever before is bad news for workers and bad news for business. We know that long hours and dense workloads are stressful. We know that workers want a better work/life balance, yet some employers insist on trying to squeeze every last drop of sweat out of their workforce.

'A stressed employee is not a productive employee. Things like a failure to replace staff are bad for workers, their families and the employers' productivity. Unless bosses start to seriously tackle stress and the causes of stress then they will continue to lose many days every year to workers off sick and many hours of productivity from their demoralised workforce.'

Factors linked to overwork or stress

Factor Problem issues Problem issues Problem issues Problem issues

2004 survey 2002 survey 2000 survey 1998 survey

Workloads 79% 80% 74% 60%

Cuts in staff 49% 50% 53% 60%

Change 47% 52% 44% no equivalent

Long hours 37% 41% 39% 28%

Bullying 27% 28% 30% 21%

Shiftwork 22% 22% 30% 22%

Cramped 17% 19% 16% 14%

working conditions

Redundancies 14% 12% 17% 15%

Sex or racial 3% 4% 6% 5%

NOTES TO EDITORS:

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

- The stress and overwork chapter from the TUC biennial survey of safety reps will be available under embargo at http://www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/tuc-8901-f0.cfm

- 4,521 health and survey representatives completed the questionnaire online or by post during the late spring and summer 2004.

- The full safety rep survey will be published in November.

Contacts:

Media enquiries : Ben Hurley T: 020 7467 1248; Pager: 07699 713182 ; E: bhurley@tuc.org.uk
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; Pager: 07699 744115; E: media@tuc.org.uk

Skills for Life and media enquiries : Dan Ashley T: 020 7467 1372; M: 07880 504 846;
E: dashley@tuc.org.uk

Press release (600 words) issued 2 Nov 2004