Report: European handling of workplace violence is uneven
The European Commission published a report last month aimed at assessing the framework agreement on harassment and violence at work adopted in 2007 by the European social partners. The document reports wide disparities between countries with regard to the implementation of the agreement and its real impact at company level.
The April 2007 framework agreement has led to the adoption of legally binding instruments in a very limited number of countries. In five countries (Cyprus, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Spain), the national social partners transposed the European framework agreement into collective agreements. In France and Luxembourg, these were subsequently declared universally applicable by the government, whereas in Denmark, the agreement applies only to the public sector. In Slovenia, the national legislation on health and safety at work was amended to address the issues raised in the agreement.