December 4, 2002—Work-related stress is Europes second biggest occupational health problem, after back pain, affecting over 40 million people a year in the EU and accounting for more than half of all staff absenteeism. As part of a Europe-wide campaign to tackle this problem, the Danish Presidency of the European Union and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work recently organized a major European conference, Preventing Psychosocial Risks at Work: European perspectives in Bilbao, Spain.
The conference offered a platform for more than 300 experts, practitioners and decision makers to exchange know-how and experiences. Leading experts presented an up-to-date overview of Europes psychosocial working environment, pointing out particular problem areas such as violence and bullying, and providing solutions. Representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Danish Presidency, employers federations and trade unions took part in an open debate on future policy. The conference clearly indicated that the human and economic costs of stress and other psychosocial risks in Europes workplaces are very high and increasing.
The conference set out a stress-busting roadmap to tackle the problem across the European Union. Recommendations included:
- The development of new tools and practices to help organizations, and in particular small- and medium-sized enterprises, to meet their risk assessment obligations under the Health and Safety Framework Directive.
- The systematic evaluation of existing good practices in order to identify success factors and facilitate their transfer to other workplaces and sectors.
- The setting up of an active network of researchers, legislators, social partners and working environment professionals to share information and develop effective stress-busting strategies.
- Policy development needs to be based on an effective occupational safety and health monitoring system, based on national experience with quantitative as well as qualitative data.
- Learning about psychosocial risks should be an integrated part of the training for managers and occupational health and safety professionals.
- The momentum of the European Week should continue to be translated into concrete actions, which are essential for prevention. The success of the European Week in raising awareness of well-being at work and psychosocial risk should be followed by further initiatives by the public authorities and social partners at national level, as well as at company level.
More information on the event and the European Week 2002 can be found online.
