Workplace stress on the increase
An
Australian Exhibitions and Conferences product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Feb 20, 2007
Ahead of her March 20 address to the Safety In Action Conference, Professor Niki Ellis says the rise of casual employment had serious implications for workers' health.
While industrial relations changes have increased stress levels for Australia's casual employees, many of Australia's most highly skilled and sought-after workers also feel trapped in unhealthy conditions, according to one of the country's leading workplace health experts.
Ahead of her March 20 address to the Safety In Action Conference, Professor Niki Ellis says the rise of casual employment had serious implications for workers' health.
"In past decades, research showed that occupational stress was worse for people who have little control over their work," she says.
"Industrial relations changes have made this worse, not better".
"Furthermore, people in insecure employment are reluctant to make unsafe working conditions an issue, so will often put up with them".
"The casualisation of the workforce has had a huge negative impact on occupational health and safety".
Recent research showed workplace stress was becoming more widespread, irrespective of social standing, with highly skilled workers also increasingly experiencing unhealthy levels, Professor Ellis says".
""Work life balance is a problem for them," she says".
""There are lots of highly skilled workers putting in 50 hours per week".
"They're not all doing it because they love their jobs but because they're trapped by their lifestyles".
"Given that international research is showing that workplace stress is a leading cause of illness, that's a big problem".
Professor Ellis says she was "struck by the attitude of denial" towards workplace stress in Australia, where little recognition is given to psychosocial workplace hazards, in contrast to the United Kingdom, where the government introduced stress management standards in 2005".
""Australian employer groups have been very effective in blocking any action to address workplace stress and the Australian Safety and Compensation Council has been silent on it".
"It's extraordinary really," she says".
""Hang on, whatever you might think of stress, it means a lot of people are not working as well as they should and employers of choice are looking at stress very seriously".
Australia's workplace safety scorecard and the latest research on stress at work will be the focus of two addresses by Professor Ellis on March 20 at the Safety In Action Conference, which is hosted by the Safety Institute of Australia's Victorian division and sponsored by WorkSafe Victoria.
The conference and concurrent trade show run from March 20 to 22 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.
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