- The
Health & Safety Executive 1990 suggested that
upwards of 40,000,000 working days are lost each year
due to stress related disorders in the UK.
- In
1994 a study by the H&S Executive,based on the
1990 figures, estimated that the cost of work accidents
and work-related ill health to employers in the UK
in 1990 was between £4.5 and £9 billion,
and the total cost to the economy was between £6
and £12 billion.
- The
H&S Executive GB has estimated that at least half
of all lost days are related to work stress [Cooper
et al.,1996].
- Kearns
[1986] suggested that up to 60% of all work absence
is caused by stress-related disorders.
- Cooper
& Davidson [1982] reported that 71% of their sample
of managers in the UK felt that their psychological
health problems were related to stress at work.
- Jones
et al [1998] in a questionnaire-based survey of the
working population reported that 26.6% of respondents
reported suffering from stress, depression or anxiety,
or a physical condition attributable to work-related
stress. The authors estimated that out of a total
of 19.5 million working days lost in GB due to work-related
stress, 11 million were due to musculo-skeletal disorders
and 5 million to stress.
- More
recent figures released by the UK's Confederation
of British Industry [1999] indicate that 200,000,000
days were lost through sickness absence in 1998 (8.5
days per employee).
- This
represents a loss of 3.7% working time.
- Cost
to British Business in 1998 was £10.2 billion
(average cost per worker £426).
- Minor
illness was cited as the major cause of absence for
manual & non-manual workers.
- For
non-manual workers stress was felt to be the second
highest contributor to absence, second only to minor
illness.
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