Europe’s workplace stress kills around 10,000 people a year, according to a new study by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) presented on Monday 28 April to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day.
For the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), these figures illustrate “the urgent need for an EU directive on psychosocial risks at work”.
“There are 6,190 deaths annually through coronary heart disease which are attributable to psychosocial risks at work across the EU27 and the UK; another 4,843 people lose their lives through suicide caused by work-related depression. That means psychosocial risks are a greater danger to workers than physical accidents, which killed 3,286 people in the EU in 2022”, says the study.
Depression caused by exposure to psychosocial risks at work costs European countries between €45 and €103 billion every year, and women workers are disproportionately affected, from long working hours to harassment.
Deaths linked to stress at work are also more frequent in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, notes the ETUI.
For further information: https://aeur.eu/f/gke (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)