Outstanding examples of workplace stress management celebrated at the Good Practice Awards ceremony
On the eve of World Day for Safety and Health at Work (28 April), the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) holds its Healthy Workplaces Good Practice Awards ceremony in Riga, Latvia. The awards demonstrate the benefits of adopting good occupational safety and health practices and highlight leading examples of active management of stress and psychosocial risks in the workplace.
As the current host of the Presidency of the Council of the EU, Latvia is hosting the Healthy Workplaces Good Practice Awards ceremony on 27 April 2015, as part of a bigger conference devoted to occupational safety and health (OSH). The awards recognise innovative and outstanding examples of good practice in relation to EU-OSHA’s Healthy Workplaces Manage Stress campaign and were presented by the Latvian Minister of Welfare, Uldis Augulis and EU-OSHA Director Christa Sedlatschek.
The Minister of Welfare of Latvia, Uldis Augulis, noted that many organisations incorrectly consider psychosocial risks to be a taboo subject: ‘In about one-third of European establishments, a reluctance to talk openly about psychosocial risks and stress appears to be the main difficulty in addressing these issues. At present, only 20 % of establishments in Latvia have prevention plans in place, and so we hope the awards will increase awareness and inspire for better psychosocial working conditions in our country.’
Director of EU-OSHA, Christa Sedlatschek, emphasised the importance of tackling stress in the workplace: ‘Psychosocial risk factors are often perceived as more challenging to deal with than other issues. But these risks can be dealt with using the same principles as any other occupational safety and health issue, and that is what the Healthy Workplaces Good Practice Awards aim to show. For example, Siemens’ multifaceted Life in Balance programme improved the psychosocial working environment of the company in Belgium, and the Spanish Hotel Colón, with only 78 employees, implemented a participative psychosocial risk prevention procedure, improving both work organisation and employees’ well-being.’
Representatives from winning organisations, such as Daimler (Germany), Schuberg Philis (Netherlands) and Zavarovalnica Triglav (Slovenia), shared their experiences in successfully managing stress and psychosocial risks at work.
However, much remains to be done. EU-OSHA’s second European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER-2) found that one in five establishments in Europe that have to deal with difficult customers or time pressure indicate they do not have the information or tools they need to deal with these risks. The survey also found that only around one-third of establishments have an action plan in place to prevent work-related stress. The Good Practice Awards should help highlight to others that workplace psychosocial risks can be prevented. All awarded and commended examples are presented in the Good Practice Awards booklet.