Hur kan psykosocial ohälsa förebyggas på arbetsplatsen
-med nuvarande arbetsmiljölagstiftning eller med reducerad arbetstid?
From the early 1990s, psychosocial illness has become an increasing problem in our society. During this period several factors affected the development of the Swedish labor market and created lack of job security. For example, the competition between companies increased, aswell as an increase of demands, efficiency and rationalization. This led to a higher pace in the workplace, and it was noticeably especially in the public sector. According to studies, stress is the main reason for psychosocial illness and affects more women than men. The main reason that it affects more women is that their most common work has high demands, high pace and small opportunity to influence their work situation. The employer has the responsibility to prevent the employees from being exposed to illness and accidents, yet statistics show that psychosocial illness is still increasing. One reason is that the legalization is not fully developed regarding the psychosocial field. Therefore, the employer has not the resources needed to prevent psychosocial illness. Swedish politicians has been debated whether a reduced workingtime is needed to prevent the psychosocial illness. However, there are no studies showing that it affects the physical health or sickleave, yet it allowed the workers to experienced reduced stress and pain, which led to increased well-being.