TPV Webinar 3: Risk assessment, an EU health and safety obligation

Last Monday, CESI and its members had the opportunity to participate in a timely webinar on the importance of implementing risk assessment regarding third-party violence and harassment at work. The aim of the online conversation was to present the positive aspects of a preventative risk assessment culture at work and provide social partners with the opportunity to share examples from their countries on the topic.

Experienced policy makers and social partner representatives contributed to the discussion: Simone Mohrs from the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers’ Association (HOSPEEM) opened the webinar and Jane Pillinger, consultant of the project, presented the highlights of a previous 2^nd TPV Webinar of the project. Sarah Copsey and Manuela Seifert from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) explained why risk assessment is a necessary mechanism to prevent violence and harassment at work and presented EU-OSHA’s OiRA (Online interactive Risk Assessment), a web-based tool that allows users to perform a health and safety risk assessment of their workplace, while Ulrike Wabusseg from the European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE) and Martina Di Ridolfo from the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) explained how this tool can be used in the education sector. Finally, Linda van der Marel from the Dutch Centre for Labour Relations (CAOP), Jan Schriefer from the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV) and Enzo Bernardo from the Italian Federation of Public Services Workers (FP CGIL) presented risk assessment initiatives in their sectors.

For CESI, this webinar was an important opportunity way of continuing the awareness-raising action on the topic started with its own project on third-party violence at work carried out between 2019 and 2020, in particular through an own #NOVIOLENCEATWORK campaign based on a video and manifesto against third-party violence at work.

About the multisectoral European social partner project

“The role of social partners in preventing third-party violence and harassment at work” is a joint project of HOSPEEM, EPSU, CEMR, CESI (co-applicants) and ETF, ETNO, ETUCE, EUPAE, UITP (associated organizations), co-funded by the European Commission, for the years 2021 to 2023.

The project aims to assess the effectiveness at the national level of the EU multi-sectoral social partners’ Guidelines to tackle and prevent third-party violence and harassment related to work (2010), which CESI signed in 2018, as part of the TUNED delegation, for the central government administrations’ sector. It will identify areas for improvements and explore possibilities for reviewing the Guidelines’ content and nature considering recent legislative developments and the ILO Convention 190 on Violence and Harassment (2019). The final objective of the project is to become an awareness-raising tool on a gender-sensitive approach to third-party violence and harassment at the workplace.