Brussels, 02/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - EUR 20 billion is lost every year in absenteeism and medical costs for the 41.21 million people (28% of employees in 2000) affected by stress at work in the EU. These are the financial and human costs of this disease for which companies and public authorities have to pick up the tab. Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou explained the causes of work-related stress to the press on Tuesday in Strasbourg at the launch of the first information campaign. European Parliament President, Pat Cox and the Director of the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work (Bilbao), Hans-Horst Konkolewsky also attended the press conference. The "Working on Stress" campaign will be brought to a close during the European week for Health and Safety at Work next October. It is organised by the Bilbao Agency in co-operation with its national agencies and social partners in the different countries, throughout the EU and in some candidate countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic). It aims to try and teach workers how to avoid stress at work. "Should yoga or transcendental meditation be advised at work? I don't know", commented Hans-Horst Konkolewsky adding, "What is needed is a distribution of responsibility at work and good professional relations between employers and workers. All work culture should b revised to avoid work-related stress".
In the EU, middle-management, women, all sectors and all levels are all affected by this health problem, the second worse problem after musculoskeletal diseases. Stress factors the most often cited are the absence of control at work, over-work and sexual harassment (3 million have complained of this in the EU), physical violence (6 million) bullying (12 million). Stress can provoke heart disease, cancer and anxiety and suicide. More than 50% of absenteeism is down to consequences linked to stress at work. All countries in both the South and North of Europe are affected by work-related stress. (For further information: http: //oshq.eu.int/ew2002/).
During the press conference, Pat Cox, requested supplementary information on preventative measures and indicated that the EP would be following attentively all that the Commission did in this area. Anna Diamantopoulou pointed out that clear guidelines had been published by the Commission in 2002 on ways of fighting against stress (framework directive on health and safety at work, "by which the employer is obliged to ensure that works do not have these kinds of problems at work") and that she had begun to introduce "the stress dimension" in other initiatives such as the new strategy for quality employment, for example. Hans-Horst Konkolewsky announced an exhibition on stress in October in Rome organised at the initiative of the Swedish agency and the Italian Institute for Health at Work.