Malta is one of four EU member states whose social partners have failed to introduce anti-stress measures for workers under a 2004 agreement, a situation the European Commission has described as “worrying”.
The Commission called on the Maltese social partners to make sure workers are given minimum levels of protection against work-related stress, as have their European counterparts.
“Stress at work is becoming one of the most problematic issues in Europe. However, it seems social partners in Malta are not taking this problem seriously,” a Commission official said yesterday.
“We have not received any feedback from Maltese unions and employer organisations on whether the 2004 agreement is being implemented. Good conditions at work are not only related to money and wages and it is important these minimum requirements are also inserted into Maltese collective agreements,” he insisted.
An evaluation report produced by the Commission also singles out Cyprus, Poland and Slovenia as having failed to implement the agreement.
Studies suggested that between 50 and 60 per cent of all lost working days (sick leave) in the EU were related to stress, the Commission said. In France, for example, the cost of stress has been reported to reach at least €2 – €3 billion each year while in the UK it is estimated that 10 million working days are lost due to anxiety, stress and depression linked to work.
The direct costs related to stress at work are now estimated to be as high as four per cent of the EU’s GDP.
The report finds that, while individuals are “well adapted to cope with short-term exposure to pressure”, prolonged exposure to stressful situations can do signi-ficant damage. The most important stress factors are work demands, room for manoeuvre, social relations, emotional demands, value and ethical conflicts and employment insecurity.
According to Brussels, these factors have increased in the past years. For instance, the share of workers reporting they work to tight deadlines or at high working speed at least a quarter of their time rose from 50 per cent in 1991 to over 60 per cent in 2005 and remained stable since.
The 2004 social partner agreement, concluded by all cross-industry European social partners including Malta’s, aims to raise awareness of work-related stress and provide a framework for action. According to the agreement, the role of employers is to identify risk factors for stress and to try to better match responsibility with skills, consult workers on restructuring and new technologies and to provide support to individuals and teams.
The Commission’s evaluation concludes that the agreement, where implemented, has overall successfully triggered social dialogue and policy developments in the field of occupational stress in most EU member states.
“The rules on work-related stress have been enshrined in different ways through collective or general social partner agreements, guidelines or legislation and, in many countries, the social partners complemented action with effective awareness-raising campaigns and practical instruments, such as stress assessment tools and training,” the report states.
With regard to Malta, apart from highlighting that social partners have not implemented this agreement, the Commission report says Malta has not yet implemented a similar agreement on telework.
“Follow-up and reporting on the implementation of autonomous agreements across the EU is a minimum requirement in the EU Treaty,” the Commission underlined.