The European works Council and dealing with psycho-social risks (24/25)
25 years of EWC directive, 25 years of EWC Service
In many companies I can see high work pressure and workloads leading to too much stress Too much stress is not only harmful for the wellbeing of employees, but also for their health. Additionally, it increases the risk for accidents.
This is an increasing problem that affects the life of individual employees, but also has an impact on companies in general and the society at large.
In the past it happened too often that European Works Council members brought ‘the workload/work related stress’ to the table and Central Management just denied the mere existence of high workloads and psycho-social risks. They argued, in my view too often, that psycho-social risks are individual problems, impossible to manage and not the companies responsibility.
It seems, now, that psychological health issues are slowly taken more seriously by company management.
I have, together with our Health and Safety expert, colleague Nicole Pikkemaat, developed a specific training for European Works Councils on work-related stress and psycho-social risk issues. In this training course we address the background and root causes of stress and possible solutions at individual- and company level. We exchange some of the good examples and practices that we have seen in different companies We also check your own ‘social psychological risk profile’ and ask you to reflect on this.
Being a trainer of European Works Councils is also at times a very stressful job. Last December, I was giving a work-related stress training course for the EWC members of a large multinational company. Together with my colleague Nicole Pikkemaat, we tried to create a stress-free atmosphere, and we played some relaxing music while preparing for the training. Then, when everything was ready to start, we missed the technician, the one person that we absolutely needed to be able to communicate and understand each other in the six languages required. As you can imagine, our stress levels got up, but even more for the technician who came in running half an hour late. We all took a deep breath and then we started the training course, with a real life experience of a stress-coping strategy.
How does your European Works Council deal with the topic of psycho-social risks?
Mariëlle van der Coelen, EWC trainer and advisor
