Increased Health Risks From Long Hours

19-08-2005

New research released today from the University of Massachusetts has shown that Britain's long-hours culture greatly increases the risk of suffering injury or illness.

Staff who work overtime were found to be 61% more likely to become hurt or ill, and working more than 12 hours a day raised the risk by more than a third. Data analysed in the period 1987 to 2000 concluded that the risk was not necessarily associated with the type of job we do, only the amount of hours we work.

Report co-author Allard Dembe said "Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that long working hours indirectly precipitate workplace accidents through a causal process, for instance, by inducing fatigue or stress in affected workers".

He also said that the findings, published in the Occupational and Environmental Health journal, supported initiatives such as the 48-hour European Working Time Directive to cut the number of working hours.

In the UK, around 14% of the working population work more than 48 hours a week, a figure which equates to approximately 3.6 million people.

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