Report highlights emerging psychosocial risks in the workplace

Working environments are changing significantly with the introduction of new technologies, materials and work processes. Changes in work design, organisation and management can produce new risk areas resulting in increased stress levels and may finally lead to a serious deterioration of mental and physical health. Jukka Takala, director of The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) says: “Working life in Europe is changing at an ever-increasing speed. Job insecurity, multiple jobs or high work intensity can all lead to work-related stress and put workers' health in danger. Constant monitoring and improving of psychosocial work environments are necessary to create quality jobs and retain workers in good condition.” Work-related stress is one of the biggest occupational safety and health (OSH) challenges faced in Europe and the number of people suffering from stress-related conditions caused or made worse by work is likely to increase. In the UK, the 2007 Psychosocial Working Conditions (PWC) survey by the Health and Safety indicated that around 13.6% of all working individuals thought their job was very or extremely stressful. Emerging psychosocial risks have been explored in an expert forecast and are presented in this new report, the third in a series on new and emerging risks issued by the European Risk Observatory (ERO), an integral part of EU-OSHA. EU-OSHA is planning a large scale forecasting study to monitor workplace and societal changes that lead to emerging OSH risks. In 2009, EU-OSHA plans to launch a survey of enterprises in all 27 EU Member States to learn how organisations in both the public and private sectors deal with psychosocial risks, and how enterprises can be assisted to manage these complex workplace hazards more effectively.