The European Union’s worker and business federations have struck a deal to try and reduce workplace stress across Europe.
It commits them to increasing the understanding of work-related stress among employers and staff, suggesting strategies for identifying resulting problems and dealing with them. These guidelines will be handed down to national members of these federations and then to unions and employers.
The agreement was signed by the European Trade Union Con-federation; the Union of Industrial and Employers Confederations in Europe; the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises; and the public sector employers’ federation.
The creation of such a comprehensive agreement by business and worker federations is encouraged by EU treaties, which allow these organisations to ask the EC to propose their ideas as European law. However, in this case, the deal has been drafted as voluntary guidelines.
See page 1 for more on workplace stress
