Workplace Violence and Harassment: a European Picture

Workplace Violence and Harassment: a European PictureM e t h o d o l o g y 1.2.1.2.1. Literature reviewThe focus of the literature survey was on recent European literature. Books, studyreports, working papers and (scientific) articles were all covered.The main keywords used in the literature search were:OO violence, harassment, at work;OO bullying, mobbing, psychological violence;OO harassment, unwanted sexual attention.Reports for 29 European countries were prepared, including information ondefinitions, legislation, policies, initiatives and studies for each one. En bloc, thesereports describe the situation in the European countries very well. From somecountries, a lot of information was available, whereas with others, very littleinformation was available.The key words were translated, as appropriate, into the language of the authors ofsome of the country reports. English was used as a search language in the other EUcountries.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 k1.2.2. Focal Point surveyIn March 2008, a survey on violence and harassment at work was sent by the EuropeanAgency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) to its network of Focal Points 3 . Thepurpose of the survey was to get a general idea of the situation across the EUcountries and to explore the issues related to violence and harassment at work moredeeply, since many studies and surveys refer to differences across the EU-27 MemberStates with regard to definition, interpretation and reporting on these phenomena.The survey included questions on:OO definitions and terms;OO legislation, policies and initiatives;OO statistics and research;OO acknowledgement of the problem; andOO management of third-party violence and harassment in the workplace (Appendix I).In the survey, the term ‘third-party violence’ is used to refer to physical violence, verbalaggression, or the threat of physical violence where the aggressor is not a workcolleague, e.g. the person, customer, client or patient receiving goods or services.Harassment is used to refer to ‘repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed towards an3 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. A full list of the Agency’s Focal Points is available online (http://osha.europa.eu/en/about/organisation/focal_points).15