Ó Ríordáin: EU workplace stress vote underlines need for action for burnt out workers in Ireland
Ó Ríordáin: EU workplace stress vote underlines need for action for burnt out workers in Ireland - The Labour Party
Dublin Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has welcomed today’s vote in the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee, on which he sits, backing a call for binding EU legislation to tackle psychosocial risks, stress and mental health at work. The move comes as new figures show over 840,000 people die globally each year from work-related stress, and one in three European workers face high work intensity, including working during their own free time.
Speaking following the vote, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin MEP said:
“Irish workers are facing a pandemic of burnout from stress related to work insecurity and an always-on culture that has taken over our workplaces.
“Whether it is the home care worker doing back-to-back shifts with no time to breathe or the young worker checking Slack in bed because job insecurity has taught them they can’t afford not to – psychosocial stress at work is a serious and growing issue in Ireland and across Europe.
“Today, as a member of the Employment Committee, I voted to tell the European Commission this can no longer be ignored. We need real, binding rules on psychosocial risk, not another voluntary code that employers file in a drawer.
“The far right and the big business lobby tried to kill this report outright. I am happy to say that they failed and the report was adopted.
“Ursula von der Leyen promised action on this in her State of the Union speech last year when it comes to tackling stress at work. Dublin workers, and workers across Europe, will be watching to see if the Quality Jobs Act, promised by the Commission this year, actually delivers, or if it’s another let down for workers in the push for competitiveness at all costs.
“I fear our Government will continue to show a complete lack of interest in advancing the cause of workers’ rights. We have seen no plan from this Government to tackle psychosocial risk at work. It’s the same pattern we see with collective bargaining, where Ireland has the lowest coverage in the EU, barely a third of workers protected, while government hides behind voluntarist half-measures instead of legislating for that right. Today’s vote shows once again how far behind we really are when it comes to workers’ rights.
“This report now goes to a full vote in plenary in October. I’ll be pushing to get it over the line, because burnout isn’t a personal failing of workers, it’s a workplace and a societal failure, and it’s time the EU treated it that way.”