Recent figures from the information service Medex revealed that 72.1% of the 8,108 civil servants who were absent from work due to stress in 2017 had relapsed at least once since. As a result, the Federal Minister of Civil Service Petra De Sutter has allocated €1 million to improve the mental health of employees in the civil service.
In June of last year, Petra De Sutter confirmed that the number of sick days taken by civil servants due to stress had risen in 2021. She attributed this to cuts in government staff which led to "the same amount of work having been done by considerably fewer people, increasing the total level of stress at work."
On Wednesday, figures released by Medex indicate that the situation may be worse than expected as civil servants have been found to suffer stress-related relapses.
According to the information service, of the 8,108 civil servants having been absent from work due to stress in 2017, 72.1% of them had to take further days off for the same reason between 2018 and 2021. Furthermore, 10% of them were absent every year from 2017 until 2021 because of stress-related issues.
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As a result, De Sutter announced that an annual budget of €1 million would be allocated to improve mental well-being at work. For the minister, this should result in attention being drawn to the issue, as has been explicitly demanded of line managers
Federal authorities will also be asked to identify the mental health risks faced by their employees in an attempt to improve the situation.
