300,000 A Year Forced To Leave Work

Unions must fight workplace mental health crisis

Jac McAllister-Green

Northampton Socialist Party

Workers with mental health problems are leaving their workplaces at a rate of up to 300,000 a year.

For those of us who have suffered with poor mental health, the findings of the government’s ‘Thriving at Work’ report are unsurprising.

Work is becoming more stressful. The financial uncertainty and instability of poverty pay, zero-hour or other insecure contracts, and bullying management is becoming more apparent.

Too many of us cannot cope with conditions in our workplaces. We are effectively forced into leaving jobs, finding ourselves at the mercy of a punishing ‘welfare’ system.