NATIONAL LABOUR INSPECTORATE'S INFORMATIONAL PROGRAMME
ON COUNTERACTING THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL OVERLOAD
AND STRESS IN THE WORKPLACE

Development of civilization, technology and society induces changes in the occupational risk factors which are related to the places and manners in which work is performed. Well-known hazards are evolving. Besides them new hazards or hazards to health of persons performing work which up to date have been overlooked are emerging. These include, among others, psychosocial working conditions. Excessive requirements connected with them resulting from the manner in which work is performed can lead to fatigue, exhaustion, stress and the related ill health as well as accidents at work.

Owing to the reasons listed above National Labour Inspectorate, which is, among others, responsible for: supervising and inspecting employers' compliance with labour law and provisions and rules of occupational safety and health; analysing the causes of work-related accidents and occupational diseases; as well as providing advice and technical information on elimination of hazards to workers' life and health, has launched an informational programme this year which is addressed to employers and which deals with counteracting the negative effects of psychological overload and stress in the workplace.
 

• Addressees of the programme: employers – persons responsible for safe, hygienic and healthy conditions of work in employment establishments.

• Aim of the programme: enabling employers, in cooperation with workers and their representatives, to identify sources of stress in the workplace and to implement appropriate methods of stress prevention.

• Location: the whole country

• Time-frame of implementation: April-December 2006

• Manner of implementation:

• labour inspectors' visits to workplaces;

• providing employers with informational materials containing basic information on stress in the workplace, its causes and ways of prevention as well as distributing questionnaires for objective assessment of psychosocial conditions in establishments and the level of stress among employees;

• providing legal and technical advice for employers with regard to undertaking actions for the improvement of safety and health in the workplace;

• organizing meetings and conferences, in District Labour Inspectorates, on stress in the workplace – with the participation of interested workers, employers, trade unions, labour medicine services and occupational safety and health services.

The information on stress contained on these Internet sites may also prove useful for other people interested in counteracting the negative effects of stress in the workplace: employees, trade union representatives, civic labour inspectors, employees of labour medicine services and occupational safety and health services. We kindly invite you to get acquainted with it.

Further information about the programme can be obtained from District Labour Inspectorates and from Prevention Department of Chief Labour Inspectorate. Their addresses are listed on our website.

We also invite you to read a leaflet on stress in the workplace which has been prepared by National Labour Inspectorate.
 

  Part 1,   Part 2,   Part 3