Workplace Stress Increases Dramatically for Australian Workers

 

A new national survey of 42,000 Australian workers in 2011 found they  are under more pressure than ever before, working longer hours than they are paid for, and increasingly having work invade their home life, totally shattering the myth that employees are to blame for the nation’s productivity. According to a report from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the largest survey of Australian workers found that while the modern workplace is for some less physically demanding than in the past, working hours have increased and new forms of stress have emerged.  

 

 

ACTU President Ged Kearney noted, "Work is bleeding into the rest of a worker’s life, and we do not have the means of recognizing or dealing with this in a way that suits workers. Instead we have an increase in stress and insecurity for workers. This is particularly the case for people in casual jobs, who fear they will lose shifts if they do not comply. Business is shifting more and more financial risk and responsibility onto the workforce. We have a 'productivity squeeze,' meaning that we are achieving productivity through unpaid work and greater pressure on (our) workers. It is a wake-up call at a time when we are saturated with urging from employer and business groups about the need to effectively take away more rights and reduce pay and conditions to improve productivity and flexibility."(WCxKit)

 

 

The Census found:

 

4.   58 percent have paid for work-related expenses and not been compensated.

 

 

The Census also found many workers were concerned about job security, with 22.3 percent of respondents saying the issue as among their greatest concern and one in seven (14.3 percent) of employed census respondents were in a form of non-permanent work arrangement.  And one in six (16.5 percent) respondents said they were in non-permanent work part time arrangements because they could not find full time work. (WCxKit)

 

 

It has confirmed the existence in the modern Australian workplace of three distinct groups: women aged 45-54 who are juggling caring responsibilities for children and parents while continuing to work full-time; men aged 45-64 who cannot find permanent work because they are told they are too old; and workers under 25 years old who are employed and living out of their home, facing labor market and financial stress because of insecure and unstructured work.