With CESI involvement: EU central government administrations social dialogue committee holds final project conference on health and safety at work

Opening the conference were Mr Hans-George Engelke, the Secretray of State at the Ministry of Interior and Mr Hans-Ulrich Benra vice-president of the dbb. A clear message was sent out take on the challenges of psychosocial risks by emphasising the rise of stress levels due to a number of factors and the increase in external violence against central administration employees, both in Germany and in other member states.

Mr Lionel Fulton, the project researcher from the Labour Research Department in the UK, attend the conference to present the guide on psychosocial risks, which he has authored, that will serve as the first European guide especially produced for all the stakeholders within central government.

The guide provides brief reminder of European legislation, overview of the social dialogue agreements that have been concluded on stress and third party violence as well as examples of real collective agreements or individual case studies that have already been implemented in different member states.

The seminar also held three theme-based workshops that focused on better risk assessment and deployment of responsibilities; better use of new technologies, and; better prevent and act against external violence at the work place. On the agenda were also conclusions and potential follow-up actions to the project. The conference was then closed by Mr Christian Moos of the dbb Europe-International Secretary and Mr Christian Maiwald of BMI Germany.

The conclusions of the Berlin conference go hand in hand with the conclusions made at Europe Academy’s Madrid symposium in October 2016 within the “Health and safety at work in the public sector: new challenges” project. In Madrid it quickly became clear that restructuring hit the public sector quite significantly and that public employees suffered higher levels of stress due to it and digitalisation significantly the work organisation. The common conclusions could not be any clearer.

The guide will be translated into 7 languages and will be accompanied by a short video. The project material will be adopted at the Social Dialogue Committee for Central Government Administrations plenary on 15 May in Brussels.

Picture: Hans Ulrich Benra © dbb 2017