Low pay and long hours

Further research has been published that reveals the threat to workers’ health posed by longer hours. The study of civil servants found a 60% increase in heart-related illness among those working three or more hours a day more than the seven-hour norm. Publication of the research comes at a time when the European Commission is consulting over the Working Time Directive. A communication from the Commission suggests that health and safety is no longer the only factor to be taken into account when assessing the impact of working time legislation. A view that EPSU and the ETUC will reject in their

Long working hours can have a serious impact on workers' health as well as safety at work. Earlier this year, the Lancet medical journal in the UK published a major review of research covering over 600,000 men and women. The key conclusion was that longer working hours increase the risk of strokes compared to standard working hours. It found that individuals who work 55 hours or more per week have a 1·3-times higher risk of incident of strokes than those working standard hours (35-40 hours a week. At the end of 2015 the European health and safety agency, OSHA, published a study of the health

Information obtained by the Observer newspaper shows that absence from work because of stress among nurses has increased significantly over the past two years. Figures show a 17% increase in Wales, a 27% rise in London and an increase of over a third (34%) in Scotland. The combination of job cuts, frozen resources and increased numbers of patients is leading to many nurses working longer and in more demanding circumstances. One estimate puts the cost of this absence at over £400 million a year (€535m). [Read more at > Guardian newspaper->http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/17/nurses