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THE EUROPEAN-WIDE CONFEDERATIONS OF UNIONS AND EMPLOYEES (ETUC, UNICE, CEEP and UEAPME) have signed their fifth agreement as the social partners. After those on parental leave, part time work and fixed term contracts, which became EU directives, the new deal on stress will follow the fourth on telework in being implemented by member organisations in their own countries.
The framework agreement defines work-related stress as 'a state which is accompanied by physical, psychological or social complaints or dysfunctions and which results from individuals feeling unable to bridge a gap with the requirements or expectations placed on them'. According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA) 'Work-related stress is Europe's second biggest occupational health problem, after back pain, accounting for more than half of all staff absenteeism' while about 28% of EU workers report that they are suffering from stress.
The text of the agreement continues by outlining its aim and scope. It seeks to raise the awareness of both sides of industry on what work-related stress is and how to spot its onset. It also tries to set out a framework for preventing and managing stress instead of blaming individuals. It does not deal with stress caused by harassment, violence or trauma at work.
Symptoms which might indicate a problem of stress in a workplace are said to include absenteeism, high staff turnover, frequent interpersonal conflicts and complaints from workers. If these occur, the agreement states, various factors must be analysed under the headings of work organisation, working conditions and environment, communication issues and subjective factors. They include working time, the match of skills to those required, workload, exposure to hazards, uncertainty about what is expected and future prospects as well as feelings of being unable to cope and lack of support.
The agreement underlines the responsibility of employers under the 1989 framework health and safety directive, and the workers' duty to comply with measures taken by their companies, before setting out broad ideas on what those measures could be. Changes in management and communication could include clarifying 'the company's objectives and the role of individual workers, ensuring adequate management support for individuals and teams, matching responsibility and control over work' as well as improving work organisation and enhancing working conditions. In general managers and workers should be trained to understand the causes of stress and how to deal with it.
Now the member organisations of the European confederations e.g. the TUC and the CBI in the UK, will have until 2007 to flesh out the agreement and apply it to workplaces. They must update the EU's social dialogue committee on progress so that it can publish an annual table on implementation and a full report after three years. The director of OSHA, Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, commented: 'Work-related stress is a growing problem affecting the lives of millions of Europeans. The agreement signed by Europe's social partners is indeed a historic step forward as it recognises the need for a systematic preventive effort and the Agency warmly welcomes it'.
AUSTRIA USED TO BE HELD UP as a society that had solved many industrial relations problems with a succession of coalition governments pursuing broadly social democratic policies while trade unions were consulted so that economic management could proceed by agreement. Last year, however, this system broke down as the number of strikes increased to a level not seen since the Second World War. 10.4 million work hours were lost while the strikes involved 780,000 employees. As well as a general strike over pensions reform and a nationwide railway walk-out, there were disputes in the airline industry. This contrasts with the previous ten years, in five of which there were no strikes recorded. The conservative-extreme right coalition government's tendency to bypass Austria's social partnership system is blamed for the emergence of industrial strife but when the coalition partners have fallen out they have called on employers and unions to solve the problem. It remains to be seen if 2003 marked a turning point or a blip in Austria's labour relations.
MEANWHILE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC the new government is making a positive point of consulting trade unions. Prime Minister Stanislav Gross invited the Czech TUC (CMKOS) to take part in preparing the 'programme declaration' and the federation, for its part, submitted its 'minimum trade union recommendations'. The eventual text was more than acceptable to the unions with the president of CMKOS, Milan Stech, declaring that it was feasible though demanding. Union ideas on decreasing tax for low income groups have been taken up while proposals to support families, science and research and to fight corruption and the black economy, setting up a pensions reserve fund and strictly supervise labour regulations are all welcomed by the federation.
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