Seminar reports

The problems of both violence and harassment at work have created special interest in recent years, which has resulted in many scientific and popular publications related to this topic. Also, social preoccupation has increased and different political and labour institutions, at national and international level, have stated their concern about violence and harassment in workplaces. The “Framework agreement on harassment and violence at work” was signed by EU social partners in April 2007. In 2008 the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work commissioned a study on violence and harassment at work aimed at presenting a comprehensive overview of the level of prevalence and awareness of these problems in the EU Member States. The project focused on international and national statistics, cultural definitions and norms, methodology, data sources, and preventive measures related to third party violence and harassment at work. The aim of the report was to: 1) Scrutinise differences in EU Member States in terms of the level of occurrence of different forms of violence and harassment at work (key statistics from international and national sources), as well as examples of preventive measures (including legislative acts) which are employed. 2) Review the methodology and data sources used in different countries to assess the risk, prevalence and consequences of both workplace violence and bullying. 3) Examine cultural differences - definitions and norms - related to both violence and harassment at work.