Infection prevention vs complacency

According to the statistics there were 1.8million working people suffering from a work-related illness, of which 914,000 workers suffered work-related stress, depression or anxiety and 123,000 workers suffered from COVID-19 which they believe may have been from exposure to coronavirus at work. The estimated cost of ill health and injuries from current working conditions (2019/20) totalled £18.8billion. 

Other key findings reveal that stress, depression and anxiety remains the leading cause of work-related ill health, accounting for 51% of all ill-health cases. The total number of workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety has increased from 822,000 to 914,000, although there has been a 17.5% drop in new cases, from 451,000 to 372,000. 

In total, new cases of ill health (excluding long latency illness such as cancer) and work-related injuries cost an eye-watering £18.8bn in 2019/20, £3.5bn of which was borne by employers.Broken down further, £11.2bn of the total cost was incurred by new ill-health cases, with £7.6bn due to workplace injuries. Highlighting the importance of infection prevention in 2021/22, 123,000 workers suffered from a new or longstanding case of COVID-19 which they believe may have been caught at work. This equates to an astonishing 32% increase on last year.

Nick Wilson, director of health & safety services at WorkNest observed that new cases of work-related stress, depression and anxiety have fallen over the past year. "This is somewhat surprising, given the various stressors people are facing at present, though, of course, not all of these are work-related," he said.

"Still, this doesn’t change the fact that, overall, cases have increased by 11.2%, and we now know that 17m working days were lost as a result – emphasising that this should remain a key area of focus for employers, not only for their staff’s sake but for the sake of business productivity too.

"The fact that 60% of this total cost comes from ill health is worth noting, as employers often devote their health and safety efforts to accident reduction, when in fact, it’s ill health that stands to cost them more."

Of course, a big part of this cost comes from absences. The report shows that 1% of injuries and 3.3% of ill-health cases result in time off work. Again, ill health seems to be the bigger problem to tackle; while injuries are now slightly less likely to result in time off than they were in 2013 (back then, 1.4% of cases led to time off work), the number of ill-health cases that require time off has crept up in the past decade (from 1.9%).

Wilson continued: “Despite many organisations maintaining some sort of hybrid working model, working practices have largely returned to normal, and many people are now back at work with fewer COVID precautions in place. The HSE’s new stats are a stark reminder that COVID hasn’t gone away, and while figures suggest that the winter wave has already peaked, employers must continue to take reasonably practicable measures to reduce this risk.

“Some might say a rise in injuries was inevitable given the wider return to work, but it’s important that employers don’t become complacent. COVID-19 put health and safety firmly on the agenda, and it must continue to be a priority now that the immediate threat of the pandemic has subsided. To drive down the numbers further, employers should focus on the suitability of their risk assessments, particularly as many won’t have revisited them since reopening.

“More worryingly, however, is the rise we’re seeing in workplace ill health compared to pre-pandemic levels."

As we head into 2023, with new COVID variants already emerging, Wilson warns that employers must recognise that ill health, including stress and anxiety that may be caused or aggravated by work, is considered alongside all the traditional workplace hazards we are accustomed to tackling.