Newsroom
16.07.2020
SOCIAL DIALOGUE

10th Anniversary: Multi-sectoral Social Partners sign Joint Statement on guidelines to tackle third-party violence and harassment related to work

It’s been 10 years that Social Partners from different sectors, including CoESS, signed guidelines on third-party violence. Today, the signatories reaffirm  that their sectors continue to address third-party violence and all forms of harassment related to work. To this date, the guidelines remain the only instrument signed by multiple European sectoral Social Dialogue Committees and are considered one of the significant achievements of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue.

A decade ago, the European Sectoral Social Partners, EPSU, UNI EUROPA, ETUCE, HOSPEEM, CEMR, EFEE, EuroCommerce, CoESS and, in 2018 EUPAE and TUNED, identified third-party violence and harassment at the workplace as one of the key challenges to face within the European Economic Area and signed the Multi-sectoral guidelines to tackle third-party violence and harassment related to work.

Since then, we have seen progressive increase of awareness and procedures available against harassment and violence. With the guidelines, the EU Social Partners supported the creation of a multi-sectoral level playing field, contributing to a result-oriented policy at workplaces, and where practical steps are set up and can be taken by employers, workers, and their representatives.

Across sectors, signatories acknowledge that one of the key elements to tackle the issue is a social partnership approach, precise definitions, prevention through risk assessment in consultation with workers and their representatives, awareness-raising, training, clear reporting and follow-up, and appropriate processes.

In the private security sector, UNI Europa and CoESS have for instance developed the OIRA Tool. OIRA stands for “Online Interactive Risk Assessment”: the tool allows private security companies to identify the specific risks related to their business. The multi-sectoral guidelines to tackle work-related third-party violence are integrated in the risk assessment module. You can find the OIRA Tool on this link.

To this date, the Guidelines remain the only instrument signed by multiple European sectoral Social Dialogue Committees and are considered one of the significant achievements of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue.

You can find the full statement here.