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What is the News?
The World Health Organization(WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) has published a study on the Impact of Long Working Hours.
About the study:
- The study covered global, regional, and national level data from more than 2,300 surveys collected in 154 countries from 1970-2018.
- It covered 37 studies on ischemic heart disease covering more than 768 000 participants and 22 studies on stroke covering more than 839 000 participants.
Key Findings of the study:
- Deaths due to Long Working Hours: Long working hours have led to 745,000 deaths from stroke and ischemic heart disease in 2016. This is a 29% increase since 2000.
- Gender and Region-wise: The work-related disease burden is more in men (72% of deaths occurred among males). Whereas people living in the Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions, and middle-aged or older workers faced the majority of deaths.
- Age Wise: Most of the deaths recorded were among people dying aged 60-79 years who had worked for 55 hours or more per week between the ages of 45 and 74 years.
- The number of people working long hours is increasing and currently stands at 9% of the total population globally. This trend puts even more people at risk of work-related disability and early death.
Conclusion:
- The study concludes that working 55 or more hours per week is dangerous. It is associated with an estimated 35% higher risk of a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease compared to working 35-40 hours a week.
Suggestions: Governments, employers, and workers can take the following actions to protect workers’ health:
- Government can introduce, implement and enforce laws, regulations, and policies. That is to ban mandatory overtime and ensure maximum limits on working time;
- Collective bargaining agreements between employers and workers’ associations can arrange a working time to be more flexible. While at the same time, they can agree on a maximum number of working hours.
- Employees could share working hours. It will ensure that the number of hours worked does not climb above 55 or more per week.
Source: Indian Express
