Workplace Violence and Harassment: a European Picture

Workplace Violence and Harassment: a European PictureHarassment and unwanted sexual attention at workIn the Fourth EWCS (43), 5 % of the respondents reported being subjected to bullyingand/or harassment in the workplace over the past 12 months in 2005. In earliersurveys, the term intimidation was used and, therefore, it is not possible to saywhether any change in the experience of becoming bullied or harassed has occurred.Less than 2 % of the European workers were exposed to sexual harassment orunwanted sexual attention (Table 9).Table 9: Incidence of harassment at work (%) (Source: EWCS 2007)Over the past 12 months, haveyou or have you not beenpersonally subjected at work to:1995EU-152000EU-152005EU-152005EU-252001NMS2005NMS2001AC2Bullying and/or harassment — — 5 5 — 4 — 4Intimidation 8 9 — — 7 — 7 —Unwanted sexual attention 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 12005AC2E 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 kEU-15: the 15 EU Member States prior to enlargement in 2004.NMS: the 10 new Member States that joined the EU in 2004.AC2: the two countries that joined the EU in 2007 — Bulgaria and Romania.However, there is a wide variation between countries (Figure 4) ranging from 17 % inFinland and 12 % in the Netherlands to 2 % in Italy and Bulgaria. Such differences mayreflect different levels of cultural awareness of, and sensitivity to, the issue as much asdifferences in actual incidence (43, 6).Figure 4: Workers reporting bullying and harassment, by sex and country (%)25MF20151050FI NL LU LT EL IE BE HR MT FR SI DK CH EE UK EU AT TR NO RO LV DE PT SK SE PL CY HU CZ ES IT BG27Source: EWSC 2007EU-OSHA’s ESENER showed that, similarly, the highest levels of concern regardingbullying or harassment were observed in Turkey, Portugal, Romania, and Norway, andlowest concern was observed in countries such as Italy, Estonia, and Hungary (seeFigure 5).49