Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-25-Speech-3-463"
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"en.20070425.42.3-463"2
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".
Mr President, the modern working world has brought with it new phenomena, ranging from the growth of psychiatric problems, via the taking of more and more sick leave and increasing burn-out to new forms of aggression such as workplace bullying.
It almost seems to be good form in the working environment to put workers under permanent time pressure and to impose on them unplanned extra burdens and tight deadlines. Anyone who succumbs to the long-term negative impact of this on their health has to explain themselves in interviews when they return to work after a period of sick leave, the idea being that illness is a result of personal misconduct. Older workers are being pushed off into early retirement
and younger ones labelled as unproductive.
Initiatives such as
which relate to workplace health management are, of course, to be welcomed. However, such health promotion programmes are often run in companies that are organised in such a way that illness is simply not permitted. It is pressure within companies, in combination with the fear of losing their jobs, that ensures that employees struggle into work against the advice of their doctors. Moreover, short-term contracted activities and part-time work bring with them the constant fear of not having a job and financial worries which are then reflected in psychological problems. Absenteeism and unfitness for work, however, not only generate high costs within the companies concerned, but also burden public health budgets.
Against this backdrop we should not be surprised about the rising numbers of those suffering from eating disorders, obesity and mental illness, nor about falling birth rates. As long as work means permanent stress and children represent a poverty trap, the demographic change that is resulting in a lack of children and an overaging of the population will continue.
With this in mind, we must ensure more job security. It must be possible for a sole breadwinner to feed a family and it must be possible for a woman to decide to have children without that meaning impoverishment. Those who are sick must be allowed to get better. If we could achieve that then we would surely have taken a big step forwards on the road to meeting the Lisbon objectives."@en1
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"Move Europe"1
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