Mushtak Parker
It’s official! Working long hours is bad for your health! A groundbreaking study by the ILO and WHO published in May revealed that working at least 55 hours a week or more is a serious health hazard that can lead to premature death.
This first-of-its-kind global analysis of the link between loss of life and health, and working long hours, based on extensive data from about 2 300 surveys collected in 154 countries from 1970-2018, shows that working long hours led to 745 000 deaths from strokes and heart disease in 2016 alone - a 29% increase since 2002. Between 2000-2016, the number of deaths from heart disease due to working long hours increased by 42%, and from stroke by 19%.
The disturbing trend in the current Covid-19 narrative of building back better seemingly at any cost to get employees back into work, is that the number of people working long hours is increasing, and currently stands at 9% of the total population globally.
Alas, if you do work 55 or more hours per week, you have an estimated 35% higher risk of a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from a heart attack, compared to working 35-40 hours a week.
Beleagured governments and corporates are battling to manage working hours and practices as the vaccination roll-out gathers momentum, albeit at the mercy of new waves and variants of Covid-19 and disruption of vaccine supplies especially in emerging countries due to vaccine nationalism, inequality and poverty.
The danger is that the pandemic is accelerating developments that could feed the trend towards increased working time.
This is a wake-call for global leaders, including President Cyril Ramaphosa and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni trying to navigate recovery and reconstruction. Containing wage restraint and creating jobs in the hour of need is one thing, but not at the cost of the occupational health burden of employees and their conditions.
“Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard. It’s time that governments, employers, and employees wake up to the fact that long working hours can lead to premature death,” warns Dr Maria Neira, the director of WHO’s Environment, Climate Change and Health Department.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus concurs.
“Teleworking has become the norm in many industries, often blurring the boundaries between home and work. Many businesses have been forced to scale back or shut down operations to save money, and people who are still on the payroll end up working longer hours. No job is worth the risk of stroke or heart disease. Governments, employers and workers need to work together to agree on limits to protect the health of workers.”
The study reveals that working long hours is the risk factor with the largest occupational disease burden today, which begs new thinking by governments, employers, employees, health-care specialists and labour organisations.
South East Asia boasted the highest percentage of people working 55 or more hours a week at 11.7% followed by Africa and Eastern Mediterranean at 11.4% each. Between 2000-2016, South-East Asia and Africa saw the greatest increase in the number of deaths. Angola has the dubious distinction of having the highest proportion of the population working 55 hours per week or more at 33.7%; with Egypt, Lebanon and Ukraine with the highest estimated death rates from heart disease attributable to long working hours.
In terms of gender balance, this is one metric where men aged 40 to 74 are much worse off both in terms of working long hours and exposure to heart disease and strokes, and death.
In South Africa, despite the fact that the Freedom Charter and Constitution enshrines a 40-hour working week, WHO/ILO estimates that in 2016 some 3 000 South Africans out of every 100 000 worked 55 hours or more a week. This figure is deemed to have increased due to the impact of Covid-19. The occupational disease burden related to long working hours does not feature in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s latest Presidential
Employment Stimulus Progress Report in March. Nor did he raise it in his remarks to the 74th World Health Assembly at end May.
So what is the evidence that links long working hours with increased mortality and morbidity from heart disease and stroke? Studies show that working long hours continually activates the autonomic nervous system, immune system and, in turn, associated stress responses, with excessive release of stress hormones (adrenalin, noradrenalin and cortisol).
“This triggers reactions in the cardiovascular system (low heart rate variability and/or sustained high blood pressure) and lesions that cause a change in tissue (leading to the formation of fatty deposits in the arteries in coronary vessels).”
The way employees respond to stress, often through health-harming behaviour including increased smoking, drinking alcohol, poor diet, physical inactivity, all leading to impaired sleep and poor recovery - all risk factors for heart disease and stroke - is implicit.
Mboweni is confronted with dire labour statistics - the country’s jobless rate increased from 30.8% in Q3 to 32.5% in Q4 2020. This translates into 7.233m unemployed, against 15.024m employed and 17.054m economically not active – this out of total labour force of 22.57m. Youth unemployment ILO estimates show reached 55.75% in 2020.
The future of work, however, is evolving. Zero-hour contracts and the GIG economy has gained a foothold. So has telecommuting. But as the ILO reckons teleworking can lead to longer working hours and work intensification.
Similarly productivity tends to increase despite a decline in the workforce. Gig and teleworking through platforms can also be used to evade employment regulation. Workers and bosses beware!
Parker is an economist and writer based in London.