by Brianna Crandall — February 18, 2011—Violence, bullying and harassment are becoming increasingly common features of European workplaces, according to a new report by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). Yet the response from organizations and national governments is widely felt to be inadequate.
Third-party violence and harassment affect from 5 percent to 20 percent of European workers, depending on the country, sector and methodology employed. The report Workplace Violence and Harassment: a European Picture includes international statistics collected by the European Risk Observatory (ERO), part of EU-OSHA.
ERO’s recent pan-European workplace survey ESENER shows that 40 percent of European managers are concerned by workplace violence and harassment, but only around 25 percent have implemented procedures to deal with it—in many EU countries not more than 10 percent. The problem is even more acute in health, social work and education, with more than 50 percent of managers identifying it as a health and safety problem.
“Both violence and harassment represent serious but under-reported threats to the safety and wellbeing of workers in Europe,” says Agency Director Jukka Takala. “Violence, verbal aggression or threats that employees experience with customers or patients are critical health and safety issues. And the psychological consequences are sometimes more dangerous than physical wounds.
The report also reveals that in many European countries there is still not enough recognition of workplace violence, with few specific initiatives dealing with the issue. At the national level and among individual organizations there is a need to raise awareness, and put in place policies and procedures to tackle and prevent violence and harassment at work, says EU-OSHA.
EU-OSHA brought together policy makers, researchers and employers’ and employees’ representatives in a two-day seminar to discuss the challenges in tackling workplace violence effectively, and to identify new and concrete ways to protect workers’ health and wellbeing, tailored to specific needs in countries and organizations.
For more information, see the Web site.
