CESI signs multi-sectoral guidelines to tackle third-party violence and harassment related to work

The guidelines stem from increasing concerns among employees about experiences of third-party violence at work. Signing the guidelines, CESI joins other trade unions and social partners to provide its members, in particular in central government administrations, with concrete proposals to address, mitigate and prevent third-party violence and its consequences at work, and to develop, where not yet existent, new practical measures to this end.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “Third-party violence at work is a recurrent problem that many of our trade union affiliates experience. This includes workers in central government administrations but in fact extends to employees in other fields of the public sector, including police staff, teachers and health care personnel. The guidelines are an important step to equip our members with tools to address and, ideally, prevent violence against them in the first place.”

The guidelines assemble core elements needed for a suitable policy framework for employers, which include, for instance, an on-going violence-related information and consultation mechanism between managers and worker representatives, a risk assessment exercise to identify potentially problematic structures giving rise to violence, a procedure to monitor and investigate allegations of harassment and/or violence from third-parties, as well as appropriate training for management and employees which will includes general safety in relation to work tasks and the working environment and which may incorporate more specific skills such as techniques to avoid or manage conflicts.

Starting next year, given the importance CESI and its members attach to anti third-party violence, CESI will also implement a larger-scale capacity-building project for its members addressed at an exchange of best practices in this field, co-financed by the European Commission.

Full guidelines

Picture: CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger signs guidelines to tackle third-party violence and harassment related to works © CESI 2018