DGB sanctions with too much stress

Employers should protect their employees from stress

10/31/2013

For years, stress has been at work in the discussion as a trigger of the significant increase in mental health problems among employees in Germany. The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) has therefore called for greater protection of workers. In the opinion of DGB Executive Board member Annelie Buntenbach, in case of doubt, sanctions are also required against employers if they do not adequately protect their employees against occupational stress.

In conversation with the daily paper „The world“ Buntenbach explained that the work stress has reached a worrying level and therefore „clear rules such as an anti-stress regulation, more codetermination for works and staff councils and employees and more sanctions for employers who do not respect the law“, are required. This statement is also supported by various studies of health insurance companies, such as a recently published representative survey commissioned by Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), which came to the conclusion, among other things, that the biggest stress driver of the people is their job. Two thirds of the working people had named their work as a decisive stress factor.

Employers' organizations against an anti-stress regulation
The Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) also took on the „world“ Position and explains that it is wrong, „mental illness primarily due to work - the opposite is true.“ After all, the work usually has a very positive effect on mental health, as it provides, among other things, self-affirmation and recognition. For example, employees would suffer from mental illnesses less frequently than non-employed or unemployed people. The proposal for an anti-stress regulation was therefore loud „world“ from the BDA as „counterproductive, bureaucratic and impractical“ declined.

However, the employers' organizations have not questioned why non-employees or the unemployed suffer from increased mental health problems. Here it can be assumed that perceived social exclusion plays a decisive role. It would also be conceivable that those affected initially develop mental health problems in the job because of the stress and therefore subsequently lose more of their employment, which means that they are subsequently unemployed with mental health problems. To wipe the results of the TK survey with such a simple note seems to be too short. Not least because various other surveys of health insurance, such as a study of the Commercial Health Insurance (KKH) from May this year, also establish a link between the significant increase in mental illness and stress at work. In particular, the constant accessibility, but also the compression of work processes and the fear of losing a job make employees on the mental level to create. (Fp)

Image: Barbara Eckholdt