“We call for the Estates General on the promotion of health and well-being at work and make it a great national cause”

Tribune. The health, economic and societal crisis that has persisted since March 2020 has considerably increased the anxious and depressive manifestations among the French, linked both to their fear of viral contamination but also to threats to their employment and to restrictions on their mode of treatment. life linked to successive confinements and curfews.

The CoviPrev survey of Public Health France revealed a doubling of the anxiety rate, to 33%, and the prevalence of depressive states of up to 27.7% in some regions, which is very high. For workers, there is an increase in psychosocial risks (PSR) due to an acceleration in the digitization of work, and in particular of telework (Digital technology and occupational health and safety, research program of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work).

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A greater cognitive load, a blurring of the boundaries between professional and personal life, social isolation and a collapse of work groups are all sources that have accentuated suffering. In a survey conducted in November 2020 by Malakoff Humanis70% of teleworkers say that the main risk to their health is psychological risk.

Insufficient rewards

These worrying findings converge with those that come back to us through our respective professional networks of HRDs, trade unionists and mental health specialists. The restructuring and organizational changes at work and the climate of uncertainty about the professional future that accompanied this crisis have also had a significant impact on mental health and well-being at work.

There are counterparts, such as the reduction in travel time between home and the workplace, which has reduced the level of stress and fatigue of teleworkers, but they are far from compensating for the suffering experienced in a context of anxiety that is rarely reached.

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For the past fifteen years, and mainly following dramatic events (suicides at work, development of cases of occupational burnout, etc.), France has become aware of the challenges of preventing psychosocial risks (RPS ), not only for the health of employees, but also for the economic performance of companies.

France in the back pack of EU countries

The successive National Interprofessional Agreements (ANI) on stress at work in 2008, moral harassment and violence in 2010, quality of life at work in 2013 and health at work in 2020 show the renewed concern of the social partners. on these issues. The vote on a law on occupational health in the National Assembly on February 17, 2021 also goes in this direction.

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