The Shanghai Job Stress Statement from the Asia Pacific Academy for Psychosocial Factors at Work

 
We have come together from 20 to 21 October 2016 in Shanghai, China, at the 6th Expert Workshop on Psychosocial Factors at Work in Asia Pacific, to share experiences and evidence of psychosocial factors and solutions at work.

We, the participants at this expert workshop, recognize health as a fundamental right and a universal value. As one important component of health, mental health is a “state of wellbeing in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities and can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”. Having good mental health especially mental health at work is, of course, a fundamental right and should be emphasized.  

Job stress is a social determinant of workers’ physical and psychological health. There is increasing media and research interest in the issue of job stress in Asia Pacific region including China, with evidence suggesting high rates of job stress by international standards.

Job stress is linked to cardiovascular disease, muscular skeletal disease, depression, anxiety, burnout, sleep quality, and suicide. Causes of job stress (i.e. psychosocial risk factors) in China include bullying and harassment, work pressure, long working hours, violence against workers, emotional demands, monotonous work, low job control, low wages, and shifting residential locations.

Job stress has effects on productivity, decreasing work motivation and engagement and increasing turnover, sickness absence, and job dissatisfaction (50% of workers report this).

At risk groups include rural workers who shift to urban areas, migrant works, and service workers (police, teachers, healthcare workers, electronic manufacturing workers).

Having workforces with good mental health is fundamental for the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2016-2030. Job stress needs to be urgently addressed. Preventing job stress and increasing resources to workers will have beneficial effects of improving engagement and productivity, and the Chinese economy. What is required is management ethics and values to create a strong psychosocial safety climate. This will necessitate leadership engagement and worker involvement and action to identify and prevent job stress, communication systems for reporting and identifying stress risks, and increasing mental health literacy in the workplace.

Within occupational disease law (Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Act) and the public health system much greater attention needs to be given to the work environment including psychosocial risk factors and it should explicitly refer to “mental health”. We strongly encourage the government to create an expert committee to address job stress that will begin dialogue with the policy makers in consultation with experts of the Academy.

Evidence-based strategies for job stress prevention and intervention include: support from top management through involvement and commitment; management priority for the psychological health of workers as important as productivity; human resource management practices including leadership and management capability and accountability; communication systems (listening to contributions from employees, providing information about risks); enabling the participation of all levels of the organisation in stress prevention; risk identification, risk assessment and implementation of risk controls at organisational and work unit levels (target the work context rather than the worker); participation and consultation with employees, unions, and health and safety representatives; integration into the day to day operations of the organisation.

This statement was fully endorsed by the Academy on 21st October 2016

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