Workers’ Memorial Day focuses on stress

Trade unionists and safety campaigners will be focusing on stress as they mark International Workers’ Memorial Day on 28 April. The annual event is a call to “Remember the Dead: Fight for the Living”. 


The International Trade Union Confederation theme this year is “Tackling the Psychological Hazards at Work — Taking the Stress Out of the Job”.


In the UK, campaigners are using the slogan “Fighting for hearts and minds” to highlight the harm caused by occupational stress and related conditions, including depression, anxiety, burnout, work-related alcohol and drug misuse and work-related suicides. 


Events across the country will highlight the harm caused by low pay, high workloads, unacceptable working hours and work patterns as well as inadequate staffing, job insecurity, downsizing and precarious work. 


They will also focus on bad management practices that contribute to “the explosion in work-related psychosocial problems”, including punitive sickness absence policies and disciplinary procedures and oppressive performance management.


In February, the latest NHS staff survey showed more than 40% of the more than 1.1 million NHS employees in England who took part in the research reported feeling unwell as a result of work-related stress in the last 12 months. 


The proportion has been steadily increasing since 2016, when around 37% of respondents reported feeling unwell due to stress at work.