Work and health

In 2000, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs published a study on stress, revealing that just over a quarter of Swiss workers felt stressed often or very often. Since then, the situation has hardly improved, with the recent European survey on working conditions communicates some worrying figures: in Switzerland, the proportion of working people reporting, on the one hand, very strict and very short deadlines, and on the other hand, often or always high work rates, amounts to 51.6 and 58.5 % respectively. In terms of health, muscular pains in the upper limbs and neck are experienced by no less than 54.9% of employees, who also complain of headaches and eyestrain (47.5%) and backache (45.8%). In addition, 20.61 % often or always find themselves physically exhausted at the end of their working day, 4 % often or always emotionally exhausted, and 9.2 % combine both forms of exhaustion. In addition, 23.2 % declare that their work threatens their safety or health. In the health field, these results are generally just below the European average, but factors such as access to care, including in the paramedical sector, and economic or employment stability are likely to have a positive influence on Swiss results. The fact that an affluent country like Switzerland does not fare better when it comes to employee health is rather disappointing, and makes it all the more important to prevent working conditions and structural framework conditions from deteriorating further. This autumn's federal elections will be particularly decisive, especially in the Council of States. Not only are certain political forces extremely reluctant to improve current labor legislation, but their representatives are also keen to move towards its gradual dismantling, despite the flexibility of the current law, despite the fact that a clear demarcation between time spent working and time spent resting is essential for the physical and psychological well-being of employees.