Stress is a workplace hazard

When the government amended the Health and Safety in Employment Act in 2002 to include stress as a workplace hazard, the National party and its business friends poured scorn upon the idea. But it seems the measure was more than justified, with a longitudinal study confirming that workplace stress is a primary cause of mental illness. Long hours, pressure from superiors, and a lack of control over workplace decisions significantly increase the chance of severe depression - by 80% in men and 75% in women. Coincidentally, those are the same conditions caused by the erosion of working conditions and move to a more "flexible" (employer friendly) labour market over the last twenty years. So it's not really surprising that we've also seen a massive increase in people on the sickness benefit due to mental illness over that time.