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Extensive Survey Brings Out High Levels of Alienation and Stress of Workers
Bharat Dogra
There has been growing concern in recent years regarding the extent to which workers and employees are stressed in their work and have strong feelings of alienation. In this context the findings of one of the most extensive surveys on this subject are significant. These can be seen in Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report 2022. This is based on findings from a poll of employees of 112,312 business units spread over 96 countries covering almost all parts of the world.
While presenting some of the main findings of the report and its overall perspective the CEO of Gallop Jon Clifton says in his introduction that 60% of workers worldwide are emotionally detached at work and 19% are miserable. If asked did you feel stressed at workplace yesterday, 59% say yes. If asked did you feel worried at work yesterday, 56% answer in the affirmative. If asked did you feel physical pain a lot of the day at work yesterday 33% say yes. If asked whether they felt anger at their job yesterday, 31% say yes. Only 21% are engaged at work, and such high levels of disengagement cost about $7.8 trillion and account for 11% of GNP loss. The report says that an average human being is likely to spend 81396 hours at work in his/her lifetime and so it is really important to know how workers and employees feel when on job.
The report gives slightly different data while reporting world averages which indicate that nearly 21% workers are engaged, 40% are worried, 44% are stressed, 21% are angry and 23% feel sadness at work on daily basis.
It is important to note that in the case of workers in the USA and Canada the worry levels are even higher at 41% and stress levels are significantly higher at 50%. In the case of women workers in USA and Canada the percentage of those who are worried on daily level is even higher at 46. In fact the level of female workers being stressed is the highest in the USA and Canada at 54%. If you have read Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed, you may get an idea of why this is so. Also this survey tells us that 63% of employees feel that businesses in their country are affected by corruption.
What may perhaps come as an even bigger surprise to several people is that the per cent of engaged workers is very low in Europe—just 14% compared to 21% world average. In Europe 37% employees are worried at work and 39% are stressed, while 19% are angry and 21% are sad.
In South Asia (including India of course) worry and sadness levels are quite high. Here 49% are worried (compared to 40% world average) and as many as 42% are sad (compared to world average of 23). In fact workers affected by sadness at job are the highest here in percentage terms. At the same time, it is interesting to see that while worry and particularly sadness levels are so high here, the percentage of workers who are stressed on daily basis is lesser here—35% compared to world average of 44%. So it appears that workers can handle stress somewhat better here, despite worrying and being affected by sadness more. Those affected by anger here are much higher in percentage terms compared to world average—34% compared to 21% world average. The percentage of workers who feel businesses to be affected by corruption is also extremely high in South Asia at 81%. The employees engaged with their work are 27%.
In some of the richer regions, even while levels of engagement may be low, workers tend to have a better perception of their overall life prospects. In Europe this is true for 47% of workers, despite those engaged with work being just 14%. This may be because of various welfare benefits workers can access. In South Asia these benefits are largely absent, and so we see that workers in South Asia who have a positive or hopeful perception of overall life prospects is only 11%.
Hence it is clear that the overall picture we get of the involvement and engagement of most employees with their work is a bleak one. Even if we go back to some of the previous polls and studies of Gallup on this issue, we get a similar discouraging view of workers’ perception regarding their employment and work. Around 2017 the workers who were engaged with their work were found to be just 15%. Analysis of 2011-12 data revealed this percentage to be 13 only, while those having negative feeling or feelings of hostility towards their place of work and employment outnumbered those who were positively engaged by 2 to 1. Another Gallup study in Germany suggested that some of the stress and alienation of workplace is carried back home too as 51% of the actively disengaged workers were found to be behaving poorly with their loved ones.
Such studies and polls are important for drawing attention to the disturbing reality of a very important aspect of human life, and thereby to emphasize the need for significant, thoughtful remedial action.
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Workers Pay Very High Price of Industrial and Workplace Accidents
Bharat Dogra
Accidents are a leading cause of human distress. However most discussion has been concentrated on road accidents while occupational accidents which affect mostly the working class have received comparatively much lesser attention. This should not lead to neglect of the very heavy price that workers have to pay in terms of serious injuries or even loss of life caused by accidents taking place at workplace ( whether industries or mines, forests or farms).
In recent years, significant research has led to a better understanding of the seriousness of occupational safety issues. Dr. Jorma Saari, writing in the Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety, has provided us an overview of the seriousness of occupational accidents. According to International Labour Office statistics, Dr. Saari writes, “120 million occupational accidents occur annually at workplaces worldwide. Of these 2,10,000 are fatal accidents. Every day, more than 500 men or women do not come home because they were killed by accidents at work.”
More than the over 2 lakh mortalities presented by this data, it is the number of occupational injuries which is shockingly high. Given the fact that 120 million occupational accidents take place in a year, the number of injuries is likely to be massive indeed. This means over 3 lakh occupational accidents per day.
Gordon S. Smith and Mark A. Veazle write in a paper titled ‘Principles of Prevention, the Public Health Approach to Reducing Injuries in the Workplace’, “As a health problem, injuries are the leading cause of premature death (i.e. before age 65)- in most countries…… One out of three nonfatal injuries and one out of six fatal injuries to working-age persons in the United States occur on the job. Similar patterns apply in most of the developed countries. In middle and low-income countries, a rapid and relatively unregulated pace of industrialization may result in a nearly global pandemic of occupational injuries.”
If occupational accident rate in India is assumed to be the same as in the world, then there are likely to be about 35,000 fatalities and about 20 million occupational accidents in India in one year. However there is a lot of evidence that occupational accident and fatality rate may be higher In India due to shockingly poor safety conditions in many factories, mines, construction sites, forests and farms in India. However, occupational accidents, fatalities and injuries are very seriously underestimated in official data in India.
The Indian Express reported on December 3, 2014, “Official statistics suggest there were 4275 documented fatalities in Indian factories between 2010 and 2012. Analysts say that even by the most conservative estimate, the actual number could be at least ten times higher if the accidents in the unorganized manufacturing sector are counted.” In a 2005 report, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated that there could be 40,000 industrial fatalities in India in an average year.
This report noted that similarly the officially estimated 163 mining fatalities in 2013 may be grossly underestimated. This report said,”Industry workers, including senior officers employed by the world’s largest coal miner, state owned Coal India Ltd., concede that official numbers could be much lower than the actual deaths that take place deep inside the mines.”(IEx., Dec.5, 2014).
India is estimated to have 569 coal mines, 67 oil and gas mines, 1770 non-coal (big) mines and over one lakh small mines. Smaller stone mines and attached crushers have very poor working conditions. The total number of annual fatalities in all mines, quarries and attached crushers are likely to be in thousands, not hundreds.
According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) there were 130 chemical accidents during the decade 2003-2013 leading to 259 deaths and 563 serious injuries. In addition there were many smaller accidents/ incidents.
A study of the largest ship-breaking yard at Alang released in May 2014 found that the fatality rate among workers was very high. This study was commissioned by the National Human Rights Commission and conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. This study found shocking lack of enforcement of safety regulations and highly inadequate health facilities.
In agriculture, accidents are likely to have increased significantly with the rapid mechanization as well as an increase in the use of pesticides, herbicides etc. Thresher accidents have snatched away the limbs of many farmers and farm workers. As several high risk units are pushed towards rural areas, the risk of occupational accidents in rural areas increases.
(Extract. Bharat Dogra is an author and journalist, and Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include ‘Planet in Peril’, ‘Man over Machine’ and ‘A Day in 2071’.)
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WHO-ILO Report: Work-related Causes Kill 2 Million People Globally Each Year
Newsclick Report
As many as 1.9 million people died because of work-related diseases and injuries in the year 2016, according to the joint estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) published on September 17.
According to the first ‘WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury, 2000-2016’, the majority of work-related deaths were due to respiratory and cardiovascular disease.The main causes of deaths were chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (450,000 deaths); stroke (400,000 deaths) and ischaemic heart disease (350,000 deaths). Non-communicable diseases accounted for 81% of the deaths.
Further, occupational injuries caused 19% of these deaths (360,000 deaths).
The study considered 19 occupational risk factors that include exposure to long working hours and workplace exposure to air pollution, asthmagens, carcinogens, ergonomic risk factors, and noise. Exposure to long working hours was a major risk associated with around 750,000 deaths. Following this, workplace exposure to air pollution (particulate matter, gases and fumes) was the risk responsible for 450,000 deaths.
Publishing the report, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said, “It’s shocking to see so many people literally being killed by their jobs.” He said the report was a “wake-up call” for nations and businesses to protect the health and safety of workers.
The report warned that work-related diseases and injuries can burden the health systems, reduce productivity and can have a catastrophic impact on household incomes of workers.
While work-related deaths per population globally fell by 14% between 2000 and 2016, deaths due to heart disease and stroke associated with exposure to long working hours rose by 41% and 19% respectively. The report said the numbers showed a rising trend in this relatively new and psychosocial occupational risk factor.
According to the joint report, workers in South-East Asia and the Western Pacific face a disproportionately large number of work-related deaths. This indicates a huge lack of workers safety in countries of this region. India is no exception. From 2000 to 2016, the yearly work related death toll in India rose from 3,45,418 to 4,16,910, which is an increase of around 20%.
Earlier this year, the IndustriALL Global Union along with its affiliates in India urged the government to take measures to improve occupational health and safety situation in the country. The organisation said that about 231 workers were killed between May 2020 and June 2021 in about 116 industrial accidents in chemical and mining industries across the country.
The country saw a series of deadly industrial accidents last year, resulting in the death of many workers. Notably, in Visakhapatnam, five accidents between May and August 2020 killed around 30 people while severely injuring others. In the deadliest of these accidents, Styrene gas leaked from LG Polymers factory in Visakhapatnam’s RR Venkatapuram, in which 15 people died and hundreds living in the villages surrounding the factory had to be hospitalised.
In August last year, nine people died and 15 others were injured in a major fire accident at Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited (TS Genco) hydel power plant located in Srisailam, Hyderabad.
Labour unions say such accidents are a result of negligence and lack of standard safety precautions taken by the managements, along with the hiring of unskilled workers in many cases to cut manpower cost.
