Hospital sector social partners confirm their commitment to prevent and reduce psycho-social risks and stress at work




Brussels/Helsinki, 18 November 2015

On 10 November 2015, HOSPEEM and EPSU – with the support of the Finnish EPSU affiliates JHL, Superliitto and Tehy – organised a conference in Helsinki aimed at supporting a broad fact-finding on the main risk factors of psycho-social risks and stress at work in the hospital/healthcare sector, highlighting good practices to assess the risks and identifying instruments and measures that can help preventing, managing and/or reducing the risks.

A range of presentations illustrated how preventive actions, risk assessment and good management of psycho-social risks and stress at work can contribute to improved workers’ health and safety, to better quality care for the patients, to more attractive retention conditions for the workforce in the hospital sector and to improved efficiency in the management of healthcare institutions. They help reducing the negative effects psycho-social risks and stress at work have on the individual worker and/or on the good functioning of institutions and services in the hospital/healthcare sector. Speakers also looked into organisational factors for stress at work - such as working time, work organisation, staff shortages - and how they can be tackled by both employers and trade unions or workforce representatives in the context of primary prevention measures.






From left to right: Cyrille Duch, Maryvonne Nicolle, Valérie d'Almeida (all CFDT Santé Services Sociaux) and Catherine Allemand (Syndex), France, before giving their presentation



The event brought together about 85 participants from more than 20 European countries. The live web streaming was followed by up to 250 people. This conference was the contribution of the hospital/healthcare sector social partners to the EU-OSHA 2014-2015 "Healthy Workplaces Manage Stress" campaign, aiming at giving a sector-specific input into the campaign and relevant follow-up activities.
All presentations are available on a dedicated webpage. On another webpage you can also access the recording of the conference. A report on each of the two conferences will be published in 2016 and will inform the future work of the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Hospital Sector on this issues.






Prof. Dr. Albert Nienhaus, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf / Berufsgenossenschaft für Gesundheitsdienst und Wohlfahrtspflege (bgw), Germany, during his presentation



This event was organised in the framework of a project receiving financial support by the European Commission. It supports the sectoral social partners to assess the impact of health and safety risks in the hospital sector and the role of social partners in addressing them. The focus in HOSPEEM’s and EPSU’s current project is on the two most prevalent health and safety risks on the health care sector, i.e. musculoskeletal disorders (on this topic a first conference took place on 25 March 2015 in Paris) and psycho-social risks and stress at work.






From left to right: Nico Knibbe (LOCOmotion Research NL, contracted expert/moderator), Zinta Podniece (DG EMPL, Health and Safety Unit), Luxembourg, Kirsi Sillanpää (Tehy), Finland and Johanna Karlström (Kuntatyönantajat/Commission for Local Authority Employers), Finland, participants of the closing panel debate



Please read the joint EPSU-HOSPEEM media release here.


For more information on the joint project "Addressing musculoskeletal disorders and psycho-social risks and stress at work in the hospital sector (2014-2016)" click on the webpages of HOSPEEM or EPSU.

  • Maryvonne small
  • Kirsi Sillanpaa small