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The relationship between stress and health:
a guide for organisers and shop stewards in the bus
This information is produced by the joint working group on health and safety in urban transport (comprising ITF affiliates' representatives and academic researchers).
Stress is a trade union issue
Do the bus drivers you represent experience any (or all) of the following?
Do they feel stressed by any or all of the following?
If so, they are not alone. Read about your rights to fight for:
layout, design and mechanics of the cabin (ergonomics)
timetables, shift schedules and break periods
reducing stress by getting the voice of workers heard and improving relations at work
reducing stress by improving personal safety and fitness.
Rights to fight for
Many studies have been conducted amongst bus drivers. The ITF joint working group on health and safety in urban transport is aware of at least 32 studies. All of them show that bus driving is a high risk occupation.
Bus drivers tend to be absent due to sickness more often than workers in other occupations, and they go on ill health or disability retirement more often. This means bus companies have very high turnovers amongst drivers.
But bus driving doesn’t have to be this way. There are many ways in which the health risks can be eliminated or reduced. There are also many ways in which drivers already suffering from stress related illnesses can be helped to cope with the effects or can be treated. The improved health of bus drivers is not only in workers’ interests, but can also result in reduced stress for their families. In addition reduced absenteeism and reduced turnover means reduced costs to the employer.
The studies have shown that there are a number of sources of stress and illness in the workplace for bus drivers, and a number of fairly obvious solutions. The key areas for change are the layout and design of the bus (ergonomics), working time, and rest periods, and good relations at work, including management listening to the voice of workers.
Bus compartments are often uncomfortable, inflexible, and exposed to the elements which makes them too hot or too cold. No allowance is made in the design for drivers of different height or weight. The ideal cabin design should include the following:
There is a common myth that drivers are the "boss of the bus". In reality bus drivers often feel themselves to be prisoners of the timetable and unpredictable or unsocial shift times. They often feel helpless in the face of conflicting demands on them to stick to the timetable, drive safely, and provide a friendly service to passengers.
This powerlessness, or "low autonomy" as the experts call it, is in itself a cause of stress. Working-time practice should include
We talked above of the problem of powerlessness or "low autonomy" experienced by bus drivers. This problem is made worse through the isolation that many drivers experience as a result of working alone in the bus. Democratisation of the workplace by the introduction of greater worker participation in decision making can play an important role in reducing stress and illness. There are also a range of other physical and social interventions which can be pursued in order to help prevent or cure stress and illness. Some examples of social improvements are:
If you have found the above useful and wish to plan a set of proposals to your local management then consider the following six steps.
Gather background information
Do some background work on absenteeism, early retirement, accident rates and so on in the company. If you cannot get the statistics from management then do a simple survey of workers. Statistics may help you to get the company to agree to investigate stress and illness more thoroughly.
Find out what is causing stress amongst workers
What symptoms they are showing. The easiest way to identify the main sources of stress in your company is to ask workers to fill in one or more questionnaires. You could use the list of questions on page three of this pamphlet, or make your own list of questions.
Decide what to aim for
Once you have the results of your mini-survey, report back to the workforce and with the assistance of the union, decide on some clear proposals to put to management. Try to make sure your proposals deal with the four main sources of stress - physical discomfort, lack of rest, relations at work, and personal safety and fitness.
Negotiate the measures to be adopted to solve the problems
Ideally a programme should be agreed which does not put too much emphasis on any one cause of stress and illness, and which does not propose partial or temporary solutions.
Depending on your workplace you may find you cannot tackle all the problems at once. You may have to decide which problem is the most important or serious to be tackled first. You may also decide to prioritise issues on the basis of what is achievable. However try to avoid prioritising demands which on their own create the impression that it is the individual’s responsibility to reduce levels of stress. For example, avoid making an isolated proposal for a workplace gym. This may give the impression that if only bus drivers would get fit, they would be healthy!
Implement the measures
Good communication between all parties and maximum participation is essential in this phase.
Evaluate the programme
Evaluation of the impact of the programme is important as it can produce results which show the cost benefit of the programme to management, and may help to persuade management to make further improvements. Evaluation can include measuring specific improvements in such things as absenteeism and illness.
Finally, feel free to contact the ITF Road Transport Workers’ Section through your union head office for further information on the occupational hazards of bus driving. The ITF would also be very interested to hear from you if you have made significant progress in reducing stress related illnesses in your company. This information will be passed on to the joint Working Group on health and safety in urban transport and will help in developing further advice to bus drivers.
The main source of information for this information is Bus drivers: occupational stress and stress prevention by Professor M A J Kompier and published as working paper CONDI/T/WP.2/1996 by the International Labour Office, Geneva.
Copies of the original full document can be ordered from the Industrial Activities Branch of the ILO. Fax: + 41 22 799 7967.
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