Work-related stress has reached its highest recorded level across UK workplaces, with union safety representatives reporting widespread concern about workload pressures and a lack of action by employers. New findings suggest stress has overtaken all other workplace hazards, raising fresh questions about how risks are being identified and managed.
The issue is being reported across every region and almost all sectors, with safety representatives pointing to excessive workloads and inadequate staffing as key drivers. Many say stress is still not being treated as a core health and safety risk, despite long-standing legal requirements for employers to assess and control it.
Official data also shows the scale of the problem is growing, with rising numbers of workers reporting stress-related ill health and millions of working days being lost. The figures point to both human and economic consequences as pressure on staff continues to intensify.
‘Widespread failure’ to assess stress risks
The findings come from a new survey by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which represents more than five million workers through its affiliated unions. The survey gathered responses from more than 2,700 union safety representatives across Britain.
Nearly eight in ten safety representatives identified stress as one of the main concerns in their workplace, the highest figure recorded in the survey’s 15-year history. Stress was reported as the leading issue in every region and almost every sector, with particularly high levels cited in central and local government, health, education and the voluntary sector.
Workload was identified as a closely linked factor, with many representatives saying excessive demands were pushing stress to unprecedented levels. Two thirds of respondents said they were not aware of any assessment of stress risks in their workplace, while almost half said they had not been consulted at all on their employer’s risk assessment process.
HSE: Rising health and economic impact
The union’s findings are supported by figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which show a sharp increase in work-related stress, depression and anxiety.
The number of workers reporting stress-related conditions rose from 776,000 in 2023 to 964,000 in 2024, marking the largest increase on record. The data also shows that 22 million working days were lost due to work-related stress during 2024 and 2025.
The regulator’s statistics underline the scale of absence linked to stress and its impact on productivity, alongside the wider toll on employee health and wellbeing.
Calls for stronger enforcement and action on workload
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said stress had become the dominant health and safety issue facing workers. “These findings expose a growing national crisis. Stress is now entrenched as the biggest health and safety issue facing working people, and the situation is getting worse,” he said.
He said employers were failing to meet their legal duties and placing unreasonable demands on staff. “No worker should find themselves lying awake at night from stress. But too many employers are ignoring the law, failing to assess stress risks, and piling impossible workloads onto staff. Workers are burning out, and they are paying with their health.”
Nowak said action was needed to improve standards and reduce pressure at work. “Employers and managers need to do more to identify and reduce risks and to provide support to employees struggling to cope,” he said.
He added that it was “vital that we now implement the Employment Rights Act quickly and in full, so that we can improve employment standards and create happier, healthier and more productive workplaces”.
The Trades Union Congress is calling for stronger enforcement of existing health and safety law, increased funding for the Health and Safety Executive, reduced workloads and clearer recognition of harassment and violence as workplace health risks linked to stress.
