Stress, harassment, long hours are rising at work, Minister warns

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Uganda is preparing to mark World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28 with an unusually sharp message from the government: protecting workers now means protecting their minds as much as their bodies.

In a press statement delivered at the Uganda Media Centre on Wednesday, Hon. Esther Anyakun Davinia, the Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations, said this year’s commemoration comes at a moment when the nature of work is changing quickly—and not always gently.

Uganda, she said, will join the rest of the world under the theme: “Building Psychosocial Resilience: Sustaining Uganda’s OSH Gains through Mental Wellbeing and Organisational Strengthening.” OSH in full is occupational safety and health.

The phrase may sound technical, but its meaning is immediate. Across offices, factories, markets and construction sites, workers are increasingly carrying pressures that don’t leave bruises but still do damage. High workloads. Job insecurity. Long hours. Harassment. Economic strain. Technological disruption.

“These factors contribute significantly to stress, anxiety, depression, and reduced productivity, if not properly managed,” the minister said.

Her remarks signal a widening of Uganda’s workplace safety agenda. For years, occupational safety discussions have focused on physical hazards: machinery accidents, chemical exposure, unsafe buildings and sanitation failures. But the government now appears eager to place mental wellbeing alongside helmets, gloves and inspection checklists.

Anyakun acknowledged that Uganda has made progress in strengthening occupational safety and health systems. She pointed to stronger regulations, more workplace inspections and broader awareness campaigns that now reach beyond the formal sector. Yet she warned that those gains could stall if emotional and psychological strain is ignored.

“These gains can only be sustained if equal emphasis is placed on the psychological and social well-being of workers,” she said, adding that the issue affects “individual health, business profitability and national productivity.”

For Uganda’s employers, the message was direct. The minister called on companies and institutions to weave mental health into workplace safety policies, promote cultures of openness and respect, provide counselling and employee assistance programmes, and ensure reasonable workloads with a healthier work-life balance.

Workers, too, were urged to act, to seek help when needed and to take part in workplace mental health programmes.

Behind the language of policy lies a broader economic argument. A workforce under chronic stress is less productive, more prone to absenteeism and more vulnerable to illness. In a country with a youthful labour force and ambitions for industrial growth, well-being is no longer a private matter. It is becoming a development issue.

“As Government, we recognise that a healthy workforce is the backbone of national development,” Anyakun said. “Psychosocial resilience is not only about individual coping mechanisms, but also about creating supportive organisational environments where workers feel valued, protected, and empowered.”

The week-long commemoration includes a national Occupational Safety and Health symposium at Nakawa Innovation Hub on April 22, a sanitation drive at Njeru Nile Market on April 24, an OSH run on April 26, and the main national event at St. Noah Mawagali Secondary School in Mbiko on April 28.

The inclusion of a market clean-up alongside symposiums and ceremonial events is telling. Workplace safety in Uganda does not begin and end in corporate offices. It extends to informal traders, transport workers, industrial labourers and countless others whose jobs often fall out of formal protections.