Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard. In 2016, WHO estimates that working more than 55 hours a week would have killed 745,000 people. That is 29% more than in the year 2000. Among them, 398,000 would have died of a stroke and 347,000 of heart disease. At least that’s what it revealed. a recent study published by the World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization. Long working hours thus become the primary risk factor for occupational disease.
Stroke risk up 35%
Those who die the most from a stroke are men, 72%, mainly from Southeast Asia and the Eastern Pacific. Their age is often between 60 and 79 at the time of death, but these men worked more than 55 hours per week over a wider range, between 45 and 74 years old.
If the example quoted above may seem far from certain realities of the professional world (office work, up to 60 years, for example), the WHO emphasizes that long working hours affect 9% of the world’s population. Also on a global scale, it is estimated that stroke risk is thus increased by 35% for these workers, and the risk of dying from ischemic heart disease increased by 17%.
With the Covid-19, we work even more
These observations are put in parallel with the current health crisis which has direct consequences on working time: “Working from home has become the norm in many industries, often blurring the lines between home and work,” emphasizes Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. He added : “No job is worth risking a stroke or heart disease. Governments, employers and the workers must work together to agree limits to protect the health of workers.”
The WHO has proposed a series of measures to limit working hours: general policies that prohibit compulsory overtime and set maximum limits on working timeagreements between employers and associations making it possible to make working time more flexible and to agree on a maximum number of hours, a distribution of working hours between employees so as not to exceed 55 hours.
Source: World Health Organization.
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