“Nowadays, problems relating to stress consistently concern the occupational world and consequently the workers’ self-awareness towards the related risks has increased. As estimated by EUROFOUND, over 40 million workers in the European Union are being affected by stress, with estimated annual cost of about 20 billion euro.

The EU Council Resolution of 25 June 2007 on a new Community strategy on health and safety at work (2007-2012) reaffirmed among the priority objectives to be pursued “to continue negotiations on preventing violence and harassment at the workplace and to take into account the assessment of the implementation of the European framework agreement on work-related stress”.

This International Conference, through the presentation of the main findings of the project PRIMA-EF, will be an important forum for discussion between experts at national and international level and an opportunity for promoting possible strategies for the evaluation and management of psychosocial risk factors in the changing world of work”.

Prof. Antonio Moccaldi, President, ISPESL, Italy

(Extract from opening address)

Proccedings

Antonio Moccaldi, President, ISPESL began the proceedings of the conference by delivering the opening address. The conference programme was divided in three sessions:

Session 1: The changing world of work and the impact of psychosocial risk factors

Tom Cox, Director, I-WHO, University of Nottingham gave a presentation on the ‘impact of work-related stress and psychosocial risks in today’s world of work' and highlighted its implications for policy and practice.

Eusebio Rial-González, Head of the Risk Observatory Unit, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work gave a presentation titled: ‘European developments on psychosocial risks at work: an overview’ highlighting the importance of psychosocial risks and in their management for the European Agency.

Steven Sauter, Chief of the Organizational Science and Human Factors Branch in the Division of Applied Research and Technology of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) presented the current ‘Trends in work organisation, job stress and prevention strategies’. He also called for more research collaboration between European and US centres.

Sergio Iavicoli, Director, Department of Occupational Medicine, ISPESL presented the results of the ‘PRIMA-EF survey on the perceptions of psychosocial risks at work among EU stakeholders’. The results showed a large consensus among the stakeholders that work-related stress can lead to occupational disease.

Session 2: PRIMA-EF Project: Key results and the way forward

Stavroula Leka, PRIMA-EF project manager, explained the key elements of the 'Psychosocial Risk Management – European Framework' and presented an overview of the main outcomes of the project. She further outlined its added value at the EU-level, and how it can be used for the promotion of effective psychosocial risk management.

Ulrike Stilijanow, BAuA, presented the status of ‘Policies, Regulations and Social Dialogue in the EU in relation to psychosocial risk management’. The presentation discussed the appropriateness and effectiveness of existing regulations for the assessment and management of psychosocial risks and the achievements and limits of news forms of “soft law” (in particular social dialogue) in relation to psychosocial risk management.

'Best practice interventions for managing stress, bullying and violence at work' were presented by Stavroula Leka, I-WHO and Maarit Vartia, FIOH.

Irene Houtman, TNO, presented the 'Indicators for psychosocial risk management'. She explained the PRIMA-EF indicator model and further highlighted which indicators are already available from existing socurces, and which indicators need further development.

Gerard Zwetsloot spoke of the about the recent developments in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the EU and highlighted the link between 'CSR and Psychosocial Risk Management' elaborating that good psychosocial risk management was an essential aspect of responsible business practices leading to a win-win-win situation for the employers, employees and the business.

Session 3: The prevention of psychosocial risk factors in Italy

The final session, which included seven presentations, focused on initiatives in research, practice and policy in relation to the prevention and management of psychosocial risks in Italy.

a) Work organisation and wellbeing. F. Avallone - University of Rome “La Sapienza”

b) SIMLII consensus document: Evaluation, prevention and manamgene tof consequences of work-related stress. G. Cesana, M. Ferrario, C. Romano – SIMLII

c) Framework agreement on work-related stress: Development and Implementation in Italy. C. Frascheri – CISL

d) The management of psychosocial risk factors at company level: the banking sector experience with particular emphasis on post robbery stress. A. Giuliani – ABI

e) Active participation of workers in the finance and banking sector: an Italian study. L. Macciocu – ISPESL

f) Developing a model for assessing work organisation, wellbeing, job burnout and mobbing among health workers. P. Deitinger, R. Bentivenga, M. Ghelli – ISPESL

g) The national network for the prevention of psychosocial stress at work. E. Fattorini – ISPESL