Brussels, 26/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - The new Framework Agreement on Harassment and Violence at Work was signed in Brussels on Thursday 23 April, in a ceremony attended by EU Commissioner Vladimir Spidla and representatives of the European social partners. This is the sixth framework agreement signed by the social partners in the 20 years of European social dialogue following the agreement on parental leave of absence (1995), part-time work (1997), indefinite work contracts (1999), teleworking (2002) and stress (2004). The Framework Agreement on Harassment and Violence at Work requires companies to operate a zero tolerance policy for harassment and bullying in the workplace, and to have procedures in place to deal with any cases, providing suitable protection to victims. Employers and trade unions in the member states will now have three years (until April 2010) to implement the Framework Agreement.
Referring to a recent study by the Dublin-based European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (see http: //http://www.eurofound.europa.eu ), Vladimir Spidla told reporters that 5% of the workforce (1 in 20 workers) says they have been personally subject to physical violence from colleagues or other people at work and similar numbers (5%) have been the victim of harassment at work over the past 12 months. The gathering of information varies from one member state to the next, explained the commissioner, and incidents can be as high as 10% to 15% in countries like Sweden, Finland, Ireland and Luxembourg. He said that the workplaces most affected were in healthcare, social work, the civil service, transport and hotel and catering. John Monks of the ETUC said that the costs of such harassment and bullying ranged between €30,000 and €10,000 a year, leading to a loss of productivity of 7.6%. Overall costs are difficult to calculate because they vary from one company to the next, said Philippe de Buck of BusinessEurope. Hans-Werner Muller of UEAPME said it was important for SMEs to find a good way of backing these issues to avoid over-costly burdens. Commenting on the National Health Service in the UK, Rainer Plassmann of CEEP said that the cost of violence in the workplace in the UK was £70 million a year. The Framework Agreement on Harassment and Violence at Work can be found at: http://www.etuc.org , http://www.businesseurope.eu , http://www.ueapme.com and http://www.ceep.eu (gb)