Workplace Violence and Harassment: a European Picture

Workplace Violence and Harassment: a European PictureE x e c u t i v e s u m m a r yContextThe problems of violence and harassment at work have created special interest in thelast few years, which has resulted in many scientific and popular publications. Socialpreoccupation has also increased and different political and labour institutions, on anational and international level, have pronounced, through different documents, theirconcern about this issue.The aims of the report are to:OO scrutinise differences in EU Member States in terms of the level of occurrence ofdifferent forms of violence and harassment at work (key statistics from internationaland national sources), as well as examples of the use of preventive measures;OO review the methodology and data sources used in different countries to assess therisk, prevalence and consequences of both workplace violence and harassment;OO examine cultural differences — definitions and norms — related to both violenceand harassment at work.E u r o p e a n Ag e n c y f o r Sa f e t y a n d He a l t h a t Wo r kMethodologyThe focus of the literature survey was on recent European literature. Books, studyreports, working papers and (scientific) articles were all covered. In March 2008, asurvey on violence and harassment at work was sent to the Focal Points of theEuropean Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) 1 . The purpose of thesurvey was to get a general idea of the situation across the EU countries in relation towork-related violence and to explore the issues related to violence and harassment atwork more deeply. Altogether 19 Focal Points from the EU-27 answered the survey 2 .Answers were also received from Albania, Norway, and Switzerland. Thus, the totalnumber of replies was 22.DefinitionsThere is no single uniform definition of what is meant by workplace violence orharassment. Violence is a generic term that covers all kinds of abuse: behaviour thathumiliates, degrades or damages a person’s well-being, value or dignity.There is a variety of behaviours which may be covered under the heading of generalviolence at work, and the perception in different contexts and cultures as to whatconstitutes violence is diverse. Classifying different forms of violence is difficult andclassifications used are often overlapping.In this report, the phrases ‘work-related violence’ or ‘workplace violence’, are used torefer to all kinds of violent incidents at work, including third-party violence andharassment (bullying, mobbing) at work. The phrase ‘third-party violence’ is used to1 Focal Points in each EU Member State, as well as in candidate countries and EFTA countries constitutethe Agency’s main safety and health information network. They are nominated by each governmentas the Agency’s official representative in that country, and they are normally the national authorityfor safety and health at work. Working with national networks including government, workers’ andemployers’ representatives, the focal points provide information and feedback which help to supportAgency initiatives.2 Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania,Hungary, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.9