Guidance for the prevention of stress and violence at the workplace

This guidance addresses the nature of stress and violence at work, whether and how work stress and violence affect health and well-being, and what can be done to eliminate or reduce these problems. Employers, employees and their respective organisations are encourage to use this guidance, implement and continually refine their actions and programmes to eliminate and control the problems of stress and violence at work.

Violence and stress are new major threats to societies and enterprises. Their cost in terms of disruption, bad image, absenteeism, turnover, accidents at work, burnout and compensation are increasingly becoming apparent. Most important, these threats negatively affect the overall capacity of organisations to perform and be competitive. The problem affects practically all sectors and all categories of workers. Eliminating the above threats in is therefore a priority target for entrepreneurs, managers, employees and policy makers.

This Guidance is designed to offer an integrated workplace response to the problems of violence and stress that often manifest themselves together at the workplace. The Guidance also introduces an innovative approach whereby workers’ health, safety and well-being become integral parts of the economic sustainability and organizational development of enterprises. By directly linking health and safety issues with managerial and developmental issues the guidance offers the tools for immediate, self-sustained action at the workplace to reduce and eliminate the above problems.