Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel TodayMusculoskeletal disorders

Employers suffer as stress costs reach record levels

by Personnel Today 7 Jan 2003
by Personnel Today 7 Jan 2003

The number of days off sick due to stress has risen to record levels,
according to the latest figures by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC).

Out of 40.2 million working days lost to work-related illness and injury during
2001-2002, 13.4 million were lost to stress, anxiety or depression. This
compares to 12.3 million days lost to musculoskeletal (MSD) disorders and 7.3
million to injury.

In total, nearly 600,000 people took time off for stress, including 265,000
reported new cases.

HSC figures also show that the estimated number of stress-related conditions
has increased from 829 per 100,000 workers in 1990 to 1,700 per 100,000.

HSC chairman Bill Callaghan said the figures show that more needs to be done
to ensure working environments minimise levels of stress.

"Stress and MSDs account for two-thirds of all days taken off work due
to self-reported illness and these are the areas we have already targeted as
priorities," Callaghan said.

"Stress seems to be endemic in modern society – and the rate of
increase in recent years has been considerable. The key to reversing the upward
trend is to avoid stress in the first place."

However, there is better news about deaths at work. The HSC figures show the
number of people killed in work-related accidents in 2001/2002 has fallen by 43
to 249 in the space of a year.

There was also a slight reduction in major injuries at work to 27,477 – 47
fewer than for the previous 12 months.

The three riskiest industries are mining (803 cases per 100,000), the water
industry (652 cases per 100,000) and the railways (631 cases per 100,000).

By Ben Willmott

HSE stress-busting initiatives include:

– The launch of a new training and
resource website www.hse.gov.uk

– Encouraging sharing of case studies and best practice working www.ohstrategy.net

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

– Generating information to build the business case for action on stress

– Working in partnership with others to develop management
standards for measuring the effectiveness of dealing with occupational stress

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Money purchase pension schemes fall short
next post
Pension changes will help to retain experienced staff

You may also like

Five misconceptions about hiring refugees

20 Jun 2025

Gen X storing up health problems by failing...

28 Mar 2025

Keep Britain Working review urging employers to ‘tell...

21 Mar 2025

Half of adults globally set to be obese...

3 Mar 2025

Investing in health key to kickstarting growth, argues...

24 Feb 2025

Employees able to get weight loss jabs through...

14 Feb 2025

Child physiotherapy in crisis – with lifelong health...

31 Jan 2025

BMI too simplistic as a measure for obesity,...

16 Jan 2025

Workplaces urged to revisit and refresh first aid...

6 Jan 2025

Building health: Enhancing worker safety on winter construction...

16 Dec 2024

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+