Recession cause of work stress, suicides: Kharge

Addressing the World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday, Kharge emphasized that the recession in the global economy had affected the profitability of a number of companies. Consequently, a number of companies have cut down on  their occupational safety and health budgets.

“Though the companies may think that they save some money in short term, the overall cost in terms of accidents, ill-health, injuries and downtime would be much greater. Investing in occupational safety and health can reduce both direct and indirect costs to the company. It would decrease the injuries and accidents, thereby improving efficiency and productivity,” Kharge remarked.

It would also decrease absenteeism and improve the workers’ morale. This could again result in better performance of the company, reducing payments of insurance premium at company level and social security pay-outs at government levels,he said.

The minister called upon the international community for the development of an appropriate response to these issues, which should rely on and make use of the collective body of knowledge, experience and good practice in this area. He informed the gathering that Government of India has factored in all these issues in its National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at the Workplace in 2009.

Kharge called upon the world community to come together to develop new occupational safety and health strategies at international, national and company level to deal with work-related stress.