BBC: High suicide risk for men in construction

The British BBC News has released a video about the alarming prevalence of mental illness among men in the construction industry in the United Kingdom. Long hours, lack of job security and macho atmosphere are blamed for the high risk of suicide, that is three times higher than the national average for men.

The trade union Unite the Union, BWI's affiliate in the UK, is campaigning for employers to take the mental health of their workers more seriously.

"The biggest factors in mental health issues is the precarious nature of the industry, work is most temporary and workers are forced into bogus self-employment," says Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary of Unite

"To tackle these problems the structure of the industry needs to change. Workers need to be directly employed with some confidence that if they raise mental health issues and concerns that they will be treated sympathetically," she says.

Click here to see the video from BBC News