Psychosocial Hazards at Work: Why Collective Action Is Essential
Published: 27/04/2026
Editorial by Dr Hidayat Greenfield, IUF Asia/Pacific Regional Secretary
As unions mark International Workers’ Memorial Day on April 28, occupational safety and health must be understood in its full sense. The most widespread dangers workers face today are not only physical—they are psychosocial. Addressing them must become a central part of the trade union agenda.
ILO Convention No.155 on Occupational Safety and Health (1981) was recognized as a fundamental convention in 2022 and is now one of the ILO’s core labour standards. As such it applies everywhere to all workers regardless of whether governments have ratified the convention or not. It is a fundamental workers’ right – a human right.
But safety cannot be limited to physical protection. It must include freedom from psychological harm caused by how work is organized and managed.
Psychosocial hazards arise from the social context of work. They are rooted in the organization of work, systems of work, technologies, and the attitudes and behaviours of managers, supervisors, customers, and coworkers. While the effects are psychological, including stress, anxiety, depression, and loss of self-esteem, the causes are not personal. They are social.
This distinction is critical. It means that psychosocial hazards must be identified and addressed at their source. It also underlines the central role of unions in prevention.
Across the Asia Pacific region, union organizing has highlighted several key psychosocial hazards.
Precarious employment creates continuous uncertainty and insecurity. Contract workers, workers on standby, and workers employed through labour contractors experience constant anxiety about income, debt, and whether they will have work in the future. This inability to plan ahead is mentally and physically exhausting. It is debilitating. In addition, practices such as nepotism and abuse in hiring and rehiring deepen vulnerability and expose workers, especially women, to exploitation and harassment.
Piece rate wages, quotas, and performance targets generate excessive stress. In agriculture, failure to meet quotas leads directly to poverty wages and debt and has been identified as a driver of child labour. In hotels, excessive room quotas have been exposed as a major source of injury and illness. Across sectors, individual performance appraisal systems tied to wages increase surveillance, abuse of authority, and vulnerability to bullying and harassment. Targets are often constantly changing and influenced by favouritism, leading to demoralization, loss of motivation, and depression. Fear is central. Fear of not earning enough, fear of losing employment, and fear of being blamed all contribute to significant mental stress.
Continuous restructuring has created a work environment of ongoing uncertainty. Automation, digitalization, and new technologies, including algorithmic management, further increase stress and uncertainty. Workers face changing roles, unclear job descriptions, and increased responsibilities without recognition or reward. Self supervision and self reporting shift responsibility and blame onto individual workers, increasing stress and exhaustion. At the same time, there is a failure to address the long-term impact of this uncertainty on younger workers.
Behaviour-based safety has become a dominant approach to occupational safety and health. It places responsibility on individual workers rather than on employers and governments. As a result, psychosocial harm is treated as an individual mental health issue. Solutions such as counselling and wellbeing programs shift attention to workers’ attitudes and personal circumstances while leaving workplace hazards unchanged. This isolates workers and intensifies stress and anxiety.
In response, workers are organizing. Platform and gig economy workers, including food delivery riders, have formed unions to demand transparency, accountability, and protection from psychosocial harm.
The key role of unions is to use collective bargaining to shape how work is organized, ensure transparency in new technologies, and secure fair workloads, job security, and protection from harassment and discrimination. This is not about stopping change, but about assessing its impact, regulating its pace, ensuring training and support, and minimizing stress and anxiety while protecting workers’ health and dignity.
Collective action is essential. It transforms individual experiences of anxiety and stress into shared action and builds workers’ confidence that psychosocial hazards can be eliminated.
If unions fail to address psychosocial hazards, they risk losing relevance, especially among younger workers. By confronting these root causes and organizing around them, unions can strengthen their role and rebuild power.
On this International Workers’ Memorial Day, addressing psychosocial hazards at work must be a union priority. It is fundamental to protecting workers’ health, dignity, and rights.
This editorial is based on a presentation (in English) to the ITUC Asia Pacific webinar in commemoration of International Workers’ Memorial Day.
On this International Workers’ Memorial Day, addressing psychosocial hazards at work must be a union priority.
Dr Hidayat Greenfield, IUF Asia/Pacific Regional Secretary
Psychosocial Hazards at Work: Why Collective Action Is Essential