[OPINION] Psychosocial risks — the hidden cost of work in the Philippines

The issue is not simply how many jobs we create, but the conditions under which people work.

In coastal communities, fishers and aquaculture workers endure long and unpredictable hours, often isolated and under pressure to meet production demands. In mining areas, workers face hazardous conditions alongside intense economic pressure and uncertainty.

Across many households, when income is unstable and work becomes unsustainable, families are forced into difficult choices, including sending children to work to help make ends meet.

These are not isolated situations. They reflect a deeper reality in the Philippine labor market — one that remains largely invisible: psychosocial risks at work.

On World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2026, we are reminded that workplace safety is not only about physical hazards. Increasingly, the more serious risks are those we do not see: stress, long working hours, job insecurity, isolation, and exposure to violence or coercion.

A recent International Labour Organization report, “The psychosocial working environment: Global developments and pathways for action,” highlights the scale of the problem. Psychosocial risks are linked to more than 840,000 deaths globally each year and millions of lost years of healthy life.

Long work hours affect mental health

In Asia and the Pacific, nearly half of workers work more than 48 hours per week — significantly higher than in other regions.

This reflects the reality faced by many Filipino workers today.

This is reinforced by national evidence. Recent surveys indicate that around 60 percent of workers in the Philippines report that poor mental health affects their productivity, while as many as 75 percent believe that speaking openly about mental health could limit their career prospects. Stigma remains a major barrier, keeping risks hidden until they become crises.

Psychosocial risks are often treated as secondary concerns. In reality, they sit at the center of some of the most serious labor challenges.

In sectors such as fishing, aquaculture, and mining — where work can be remote, informal, and weakly regulated — psychosocial pressures combine with economic vulnerability to create conditions where exploitation can take root. Isolation, debt, unstable income, and pressure to produce can trap workers in abusive situations. Where oversight is weak and workers lack voice, the line between poor working conditions and forced labor can become dangerously thin.

At the household level, the consequences are equally serious. When adults are unable to secure stable and decent work, children are often drawn into labor — particularly in agriculture, small-scale mining, and informal services.

What else can the Philippines do?

Psychosocial risks are therefore not only about stress — they are part of the pathway that can lead to forced labor and child labor.

The Philippines has already taken an important step by ratifying the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190). This is a clear commitment to ensure that work is free from violence and harassment — whether physical, psychological, or economic.

Philippine labor and occupational safety and health laws increasingly recognize that protecting workers’ health includes both physical and mental well-being. The challenge is ensuring this is consistently applied in practice.

This means strengthening labor inspection, ensuring safe reporting mechanisms, and extending protection to workers in informal and remote sectors. Without this, progress risks remaining uneven.

The ILO’s message is clear: psychosocial risks are not inevitable. They arise from how work is designed and managed.

Excessive workloads, unpredictable schedules, lack of control, and weak support systems are not accidents. They are decisions, and they can be changed.

Preventing psychosocial risks

Prevention requires fair working time, realistic demands, safe and respectful workplaces, and responsible business practices across supply chains.

Addressing psychosocial risks requires collective action. Government must strengthen policy and enforcement. Employers must take responsibility for how work is organised.

Workers must be able to speak up and be heard. Social dialogue is essential.

The Philippines has made important commitments. But in today’s global economy, commitments alone are not enough.

Labor conditions are increasingly linked to trade, investment, and supply chains.

International partners are paying closer attention — not only to laws on paper, but to how work is experienced in practice. Psychosocial risks, forced labor, and child labor are now part of that scrutiny.

Work must not come at the cost of dignity. Ensuring this is not only a social obligation, it is essential for strengthening labor market performance, sustaining investor confidence, and maintaining the Philippines’ credibility in an increasingly standards-driven global economy. – Rappler.com

Khalid Hassan is the director of the International Labour Organization country office for the Philippines.