More than €100 billion a year. That’s the annual cost of work-related depression in the European Union, according to a study published on Monday by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).
The think-tank identified five psychosocial risks at the root of mental illness:
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stress at work
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long working hours
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job insecurity
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imbalance between effort and reward
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moral harassment.
These risks can have tragic consequences, according to available data, which dates back to 2015.
“Around 6,000 deaths from coronary heart disease were attributable to exposure to psychosocial risks and more than 5,000 deaths were due to suicides caused by depression,” explained Sonia Nawrocka, a researcher at ETUI.
In the same year, more than 400,000 years of life were lost due to cardiovascular disease and depression, according to the report.
“These are preventable deaths”, writes Dimitra Theodori, head of health and safety at ETUI.
According to the institute, 8% of cardiovascular diseases and 23% of cases of depression are attributable to these psychosocial risks.
Employers pay for depression
The report is the first to quantify the economic cost not only of depression, but also of cardiovascular disease, in particular coronary heart disease and stroke, linked to psychosocial work factors, says the institute.
In this table, France, Belgium, Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands are the five countries most affected in terms of cost per 100,000 workers.
This financial burden is shared by the employer and the employee, but sometimes asymmetrically.
“For both diseases, we found that the heaviest burden fell on employees, but also on employers. In particular, as far as the cost of depression is concerned, we can estimate that more than 80% of the total cost of depression was attributable to psychosocial risks at work in 2015 in Europe”, explained Sonia Nawrocka.
“This cost was paid by employers because of a lack of productivity and a reduction in productivity caused by illness and absence.”
The researcher also mentions presenteeism, when employees go to work but perform less well for health reasons, particularly mental health.
These figures are based on 2015 data from Eurofound. The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions publishes a study on working conditions every five years, but the pandemic in 2020 has disrupted the surveys.
ETUI is therefore waiting for the new survey to be published this year so that it can continue its research and compare trends in work-related health risks.
In the light of these findings, the European Trade Union Institute is calling on the European Commission to present a text to strengthen prevention. ETUI believes that this directive on mental health should also provide guidance for employers.
However, the researchers acknowledge that there is no single answer, as efforts to prevent these risks vary depending on the workplace and the workforce. The think-tank stresses, however, that including workers in prevention processes remains an essential element.
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