Yolanda Díaz, Minister of Labor.
The Central Independent Trade Union and Civil Servants (CSIF) has demanded that the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy incorporate “immediately” as an occupational disease the “Burnout burn syndrome”a pathology that, according to data from the General Council of Physicians (Cgcom) suffer up to 50 percent of these professionals.
In a statement, CSIF appeals to the last review on January 1 of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), which led to the consideration of professional burnout syndrome (“burnout” in ICD-10) as a “work-related problem”. Until this revision, “burnout” was included among “problems related to difficulty in controlling life” (Z73.0), within the generic category of “people who come into contact with health services in other circumstances ”.
With the new classification, explains CSIF, professional burnout syndrome is included in chapter 24: “Factors that influence health status or contact with health services” within the subcategory of “problems associated with employment and unemployment. and is coded as QD85: Occupational Burnout Syndrome.
In a letter sent to the Minister Yolanda Diaz, the union requests “that this pathology be recognized immediately”, as the WHO ruled on May 25, 2019. This organization gave a period of 18 months to adapt said recognition of occupational disease to the legislation of each country and incorporate it into the table of occupational diseases. “CSIF reminds the Government that it is more than a year late to adapt to our laws the decision of the World Health Organization”, he highlights.
How many workers suffer from burnout?
Likewise, CSIF indicates that the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) states that one in five employees suffers from burnout syndrome in Europe.
43 percent of Spanish professionals have a certain feeling of exhaustion or work fatigue, with 70 percent of them also stating that it is a feeling that has increased since the covid-19 pandemicaccording to the 2022 Labor Market Guide.
Burnout syndrome affects the worker through emotional, physical and psychological exhaustion. This syndrome is basically a consequence of exposure to some harmful organizational conditions. This is a very common case in professions with great responsibilities and a high level of interaction with users, such as health, teaching or security. Among its most significant consequences is the great emotional exhaustion, the worker depersonalization and self-bullying, which manifests itself in a loss of confidence in one’s own abilities.
“Government still fails to give this disease the recognition it deserves and established by the WHO, despite the serious psychological impact suffered by many professionals in this pandemic and the high rates of sick leave due to stress in our country. After 26 years since the approval of the Occupational Risk Prevention Law, psychosocial risks continue to be the pending issue, both in their evaluation and in their intervention in the workplace”, he concludes.
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