Good practices in occupational health and safety are fundamental to the well-being of individuals and society. It is in fact encouraging that OHS standards at workplaces have improved and that occupational accidents have decreased by 50 per cent over the last 12 years as rightly highlighted in the editorial of April 10.
Psycho-social risks at the workplace are real occupational concerns. It is commendable that one raises awareness about these risks and about measures that can be taken to minimise or remove them.
Stress is defined as “a state, which is accompanied by physical, psychological or social complaints or dysfunctions and which results from individuals feeling unable to bridge a gap with unreasonable requirements or expectations placed on them”.
It is a well-known fact that reducing stress at the workplace reaps very positive results. It can lead to greater efficiency and improved occupational health and safety, with subsequent economic and social benefits for employers, workers and society at large.
The Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) has, in fact, been proactive in this area for a number of years at both the national and the international level. It has organised awareness-raising sessions both in Malta and in Gozo in collaboration with the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and with local entities such as the Richmond Foundation.
One of the latest actions was the development of a ‘Framework for the control of work-related stress’ which has already been discussed with the social partners.
This framework document outlines the measures that the social partners should take, including awareness-raising, training and education of their officials and representatives at company level. Social partners are encouraged within the document to share resources through clear communication channels within the organisation and between enterprises.
Employer representatives on the other hand should ensure that while the objectives of the company are safeguarded, the specific roles of individual workers are also made clear and understood.
Reducing stress at the workplace reaps very positive results
This includes ensuring adequate management support, matching responsibility and control over work, improving work organisation and processes, working conditions and the work environment.
Given the importance of risk assessment in safeguarding health and safety at work, the social partners are encouraged to use this tool at enterprise level to address work-related stress.
This risk assessment exercise should include the analysis of factors such as work organisation and processes (such as working time arrangements, degree of autonomy, match between workers’ skills and job requirements, workload), working conditions and environment (such as exposure to abusive behaviour, noise, heat, dangerous substances), communication (such as uncertainty about what is expected at work, employment prospects, or forthcoming change, and subjective factors (such as emotional and social pressures, feeling unable to cope, perceived lack of support).
The Framework Document also stresses the need for the development of work-related stress policies by companies that reflect their needs and those of its workers.
Included in this document is also a ‘Model policy on work-related stress’ that can be adapted and adopted by companies (both private and public) with the aim of establishing an effective and consistent approach to the prevention of work-related stress throughout the company and to provide support where cases of stress are identified.
Four measures have been identified for the successful implementation of this policy.
First, awareness must be raised within the company on stress, its causes and methods of prevention and control.
Secondly, all workplace stressors need to be identified through risk assessments, which would be regularly reviewed.
Third, support needs to be provided to manage personal stress levels through confidential counselling for staff affected by stress, whether caused by work or external factors.
And, fourthly, there should be sensitive and planned management of the return to work following sickness absence.
The model policy outlines the role of the various departments or sections within an organisation including the management, human resources, OHS section, the employees and the workers’ health and safety representatives.
For this Framework Document to be successful, the onus is on the social partners to fully accept its guidelines and provisions, to circulate it among their members and to endorse its uptake within the individual workplaces.
Mark Gauci is the chief executive officer of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority.