Union survey reveals pressures on health care workers

A major survey by the health and social services section of the CFDT confederation uncovers a continuing deterioration in working conditions for staff in the public health sector. Nearly 40,000 employees responded to the survey and over 90% said they found their work stressful with 57% saying that the levels of stress create problems for them. A majority of respondents say that work has intensified, workloads have increased and the management of human resources has deteriorated. [Read more at > CFDT (FR)->http://www.fed-cfdt-sante-sociaux.org/content/resultats-de-lenquete-conditions-de-travail

A survey by the ver.di services trade union and DGB trade union confederation reveals sharp differences between occupations when it comes to workloads and stress. Four out of five nurses say that they often feel harassed because of excessive workloads. This is higher than the 69% of eldercare workers and well above the 55% registered across all occupations. There are similar differences when it comes to employees saying that have to cut corners on quality to ensure service delivery. This was the case for 49% of nurses, 42% of eldercare workers but only 22% of all occupations. Not surprising

A survey by the Lower Austrian Chamber of Labour reveals the extent to which health workers’ well-being is under threat from stress and long hours. The survey of around 33,000 employees found one in five were emotionally exhausted while 27% worked 12-14 hours a day. Some 40% of employees worked more than 40 hours a week even though only 1% had agreed to work such long hours. One in four new jobs are in the health sector and there are around 6,000 vacancies nationwide. The Chamber of Labour and services union VIDA have called for action on health sector working conditions in order to help boost