Well-being through work

© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi

Well-being through work


Workplace bullying and harassment in the EU

Workplace bullying in Finland

Vartia, Maarit, Senior Specialist, PhD

© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi 3

The short history of bullying research • Carroll M. Brodsky “The harassed worker” (1976) in US

• Heinz Leymann, research, reports and books (1984 - ) in Sweden

• Finland, Norway 1989 –

Nordic symposium on bullying at work: September 1989 in Stockholm arranged by Heinz Leymann

• Rapid expansion in Europe: Andrea Adams 1992 in the UK, Marie-France Hirigoyen 1998

• International Conference on Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Stafford 1998, Brisbane 2000, London 2002, Bergen 2004, Dublin 2006,

Montreal 2008, Cardiff 2010, Copenhagen 2012, Milan 2014

• International Association on Workplace Bullying and Harassment (IAWBH), established in Montreal in 2008

170 members (February 7th, 2013) www.iawbh.org


Workplace bullying and harassment – the concept and definition

•No single uniform definition. Most definitions share some common features:

• Wide range of negative acts that may cause psychological harm; direct and indirect behaviours; work-related, person-related forms of negative acts, social exclusion

• Repeated and frequent• Long duration• Power imbalance; making it difficult to defend one-self

"Bullying at work means harassing, offending, socially excluding someone or negatively affecting someone’s work tasks. In order for the label bullying to be applied to a particular activity, interaction or process, the bullying behaviour has to occur repeatedly and regularly and over a period of time. Bullying is an escalating process in the course of which the person confronted end up in an inferior position and becomes the target of systematic negative social acts. (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf & Cooper 2011)


Workplace bullying and harassment – the term

• The term refers most often to negative acts inside the workplace, by colleagues, supervisors or managers, or subordinates. Sometimes also third parties, customers, patient etc. are included as possible perpetrators.

• In English, varying terms are used; 'bullying' and 'harassment' (sometimes also 'mobbing') used interchangeably. The term 'harassment is preferred e.g. by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).

Sometimes 'bullying' is used to refer to negative behaviour by a

single person and 'mobbing' to negative behaviour by groups.


Some facts(Zapf, Einarsen,Hoel &Vartia, 2003)

5-10 % of the working population

15 months to 3 years Both men and women On all organisational levels Conducted by both

supervisors and colleague Both single and multiple

bullies

49% of the cases involves male bullies only

30% of the cases female bullies only

In all industries More long-lasting cases in

education, administration and service work


EU –level surveys

• Fifth European Working Conditions Survey 2010 (EWCS) by Eurofound. About 1000 employees were interviewed in 34 countries, EU27 + Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Norway, Turkey.

• European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging risks (ESENER) by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) in 2009.

The survey explored the views of managers and health and safety representatives on how health and safety risks (including bullying and harassment at work) are managed in their organization.

A total of 28 649 managers and 7 226 health and safety representatives were interviewed in 31 countries (EU27 + Croatia, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland.


Prevalence of bullying in some EU countries (Have you been subjected to bullying or harassment at work in the past year?) (EWCS 2010) Country % Country %

France 9.5 The UK 4.6

Belgium 8.6 Germany 4.6

The Netherlands 7.7 ------------------ ------------------

Luxembourg 7.2 Estonia 1.6

Austria 7.2 Turkey 1.3

Finland 6.2 Slovakia 1.2

Latvia 5.5 Italy 0.9

Ireland 5.5 Bulgaria 0.6

Slovenia 4.8 Poland 0.2

Lithuania 4.6 EU27 4.1


Concern regarding bullying at work and procedures in place to deal with it in some European countries (ESENER 2009) (%)

Major concernManagers

Major concernWorkers reprs.

Procedures in place to deal with bullying

Turkey 73 67 33Portugal 46 69 27Norway 45 44 10Romania 44 59 10Bulgaria 34 47 59 France 27 35 24Ireland 19 7 90Finland 1 3 72Sweden 1 1 79Italy 2 2 13Estonia 1 0 3Hungary 2 0 6

Total 20 20 33

© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi 10

Orientations and means for the prevention and management of bullying at work (Vartia & Leka 2010 adapted from Murphy & Sauter 2004)

Levels PrimaryInterventions

Secondary interventions

Tertiary interventions

Policy Laws and regulationsCollective agreements

Court caseIndustrial tribunal

Social security systemProvision of rehabilitation opportunities

Organization/ employer

Anti-bullying policiesDevelopment of organizational culture

Management training Organizational surveys

Handling proceduresMediationInvestigation of complaints

Corporate agreementsPrograms and contracts of professional after-care

Workplace/Group/task

Psychosocial work environment redesign

Risk analysis

Training (awareness, recognition, reseach based knowledge

Training (e.g. conflict management, investigation

skills)Awareness raising,

exploration of the situationCase analysis, conflict/case

resolution, mediation

Group recovery programmes

Individual Training Social supportCounselling

TherapyCounselling

Physical activitiesRedress


Framework agreement on harassment and violence at work

• The autonomous framework agreement on harassment and violence at work was signed in 2007 by the European social partners, ETUC/CES, BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME and CEEP.

• The agreement aims to increase awareness and understanding among employees, workers and their representatives of workplace harassment and violence and to provide employers, workers and their representatives at all levels with an action-oriented framework to identify, manage and prevent problems of harassment and violence at work.

• According to the agreement enterprises - need to have a clear statement emphasizing that harassment and

violence will not be tolerated - should implement procedures to be followed where cases should arise


Framework agreement on harassment and violence at work

• "if it is established that harassment and violence has occurred, appropriate measures should be taken in relation to the perpetrator(s).

• The agreement was supposed to be implemented and monitored within three years of the signing at the national level in all EU countries. Evidence from different countries shows that the agreement has evoked activities at national levels and contributed to raising public awareness of the issue.



Interventions for the prevention and management of workplace bullying - organizational level

•Anti bullying policies, management, staff, health and safety representative training, development of organizational culture, distribution of information through different means.

Example Denmark: Intervention study in two organizations. (Gemzoe Mikkelsen & Hoeg 2011)

Aim: to prevent bullying and conflicts at work, indentify process factors associated with the implementation and effects of such interventions.

Lectures on bullying for all employees, two day course in conflict prevention and management for all managers and key employees, , dialogue meetings with all employees, distibution of four newsletters and pamphlets toall employees, posters to the department level, steering group meetings.

Participants benefited from the interventions, in particular the

dialogue meetings and the course in conflict prevention and management.


Workplace level interventions• Psychosocial work environment redesign, risk analysis, training (awareness,

recognition, facts, conflict management), case resolution, mediation

Example Finland: Eight primary schools participated in a one year intervention project.

Aim: To reduce inappropriate behaviour and bullying at work with a workplace level intervention with the whole staff?

2-3 meetings in every school, training, discussions and group work, half day joint event with all schools. Some employees attended also other events and other training on bullying.

The amount of inappropriate behaviour decreased, many employees reported that they take more notice on their own behaviour towards their co-workers after the project, and that if they notice that somebody is being treated inappropriately they intervene in the situation more easily or more often than before.


Individual interventions

•Individual interventions: training, social support, counselling, individual and group therapy, physical activities

Example Germany: Rehabilitation of bullying victims with inpatient therapeutic treatment in a specialized hospital. An evaluation study with 102 patients showed very positive results e.g. in relation to depression.

(Schwickerath & Zapf 2011).


Long term activities

• Example Norway: With long-term work for the prevention and management of bullying at work - active research, publication of books and articles, training, communication, active participation of unions, nation wide campaing "The Bully-Free Workplace" positive results have been achieved.

• 1996: 8.6% bullied, 4.5% severely bullied 2005: 4.6% bullied, 2% severely bullied (Nielsen, Skogstad, Matthiesen et al. 2009)


Workplace bullying and harassment in Finland

First article on workplace bullying in the leading Finnish newspaper in 20.7.1989.


Prevalence of workplace bullying (Work and Health in Finland 1997-2012) (%)

1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012

All 3.6 4.4. 2.9 5 6 (4)MenWomen

2.8 4.3

3.4 5.3

1.6 4.0

3 6

4 8

Private companies

Governmentsector

Municipal sector

3.1

6.3

4.4

3.8

3.4

7.0

2.5

1.6

5.1

4

4

7

5

4

10

Health care and social work

Education

4.4

6.6 6.2

5.5

6.3

7

6

10

13


Occupational Safety and Health Act (738/2002)

• 28 § Harassment If harassment or other inappropriate treatment of an employee occurs at work and causes hazards or risks to the employee’s health,

the employer, after becoming aware of the matter, shall by available means take measures for remedying this situation.

• 18 § Employees’ general obligations (3)

Employees shall avoid such harassment and other inappropriate treatment of other employees at the workplace which causes hazards

or risks to their safety or health.


Dimensions in preventing harassment at work and the Occupational Safety and Health Act

FOCUS ON THE STRUCTURE AND WORKING COMMUNITY

CORRECTIVE MEASURES

FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL

PREVENTIVE MEASURES

The employer shall take measures after becomingaware of any harassment(section 28)

The employer• monitors the impact of the measures (section 8)• monitors the common rules (section 10)

Employees shall avoid harassment (section 18)Employees shall be orientated to the common rules (section 14)

The employer• identifies the hazards and risks (section 10)• elaborates rules for the prevention of harassment (sections 8, 9, 14)• monitors the state of the working community (section 8)


Active participation of different players

• Trade unions are strong. Important decisions relating to working life are discussed and decided between employer organization and trade unions or tripartite.

• Safety and health representatives and shop stewards take actively part in actions to address health and safety at work including bullying at work.

• Occupational Health Care Act: Employers are obliged to arrange health care services for all employees. Occupational health care personnel, particularly occupational health psychologists, take part in activities for the prevention of workplace bullying. They support supervisors and managers to investigate and resolve situations where someone perceives him/herself as a target of inappropriate behavior or bullying in the workplace.

• Safety and health inspectors: Inappropriate behavior is always taken into account and discussed when inspectors visit a workplace. The inspector can give a request to implement a policy in the workplace.


Measures taken in the organizations

• Finnish Quality of Work Life Survey (2008) by Statistics Finland

Measures taken to eliminate or prevent workplace bullying at the workplace

1) good treatment or elimination of bullying has been taken into consideration in supervisory activity (45% of respondents),

2) prevention of bullying has been taken into account in occupational health and safety (39%)

3) a set of rules for good treatment has been drawn up (33%). (Lehto & Sutela 2009)


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