European Trade Union Committee for Education

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(Brussels, 20 September 2024) Third-Party Violence and Harassment at work (TPVH), be it of a psychological, sexual or physical nature, is on the increase and must be halted. This is why the EU social partners in five sectors, Education, Local and Regional Government, Central Administration, Hospitality (hotels, bars and restaurants) and Health and hospitals, have negotiated a revision of the 2010 Multi-Sectoral Guidelines to Tackle Third-Party Violence and Harassment Related to Work.

The negotiations in the framework of the European Social Dialogue took place between March and September with the objective of revising these Guidelines adopted in 2010. The negotiations followed a two-year project that put together a detailed piece of research and some 40 good practices and policies on fighting back TPVH at work. These are the only EU multisectoral guidelines on the subject.

The key revisions of the guidelines are:

• TPVH should never be normalized and deemed part of any job.
• Every workplace must have a TPVH policy agreed with the trade unions embedded in occupational health and safety, gender equality anti-discrimination policy, as well as trade union rights.
• Sufficient staffing levels and manageable workload ought to contribute l to a good TPVH prevention policy.
• Gender-based violence is an integral part of violence and harassment, as provided in ILO Convention 190.
• Social partners, employers and trade unions, have a role to play in tackling the impact of domestic violence at work.
• Digitalisation, if not tailored to both workers and service users, can increase risks of TPVH.
• Tackling the persistent underreporting of TPVH by making sure that workers know whom to turn to and what to do in case of TPVH and be not fearful of reprisals.

Another improvement concerns the implementation of the Guidelines. The social partners involved have agreed to actively encourage their members to integrate the Guidelines in national collective agreements to enhance the chances of an effective use.

Although there is a small reference to domestic violence in relation to telework, the trade unions would have liked more detailed and up to date guidance, to reflect advances made on the subject in Italy, Spain, Ireland or France ( see https://www.thirdpartyviolence.com/).

Overall, it remains a step forward, in conjunction with the ILO C190 against gender-based and domestic violence.The compromise wording will be subject to another two weeks of scrutiny by national members of the organizations involved in the negotiations. The deadline for this is 26 September, and the trade unions are recommending a final endorsement.

Should a compromise on domestic violence be agreed, the five sectoral social dialogue committees will be invited to adopt the Guidelines by the end of the year.