Local Government Denmark has published the booklet "Five-Year Stress Campaign in Denmark". The booklet focuses on efforts made to prevent work-related stress at work places in local authorities in Denmark.
Imagine an employee who is constantly faced with large or conflicting demands, weak leadership management and an ever increasing work volume and time pressure. And at the end of a long working day, there are still 50 unanswered e-mails to be read which should have been taken care of.
It sounds like a nightmare, but it is unfortunately sometimes the case for many employees in both the public and private sector. And the problem is Europe-wide.
The most important resource in local authorities is the employees. It is through their employees that local authorities deliver high-quality service to the citizens and ensure fair, sound and safe development of their local communities. The reverse side of the picture is the risk for work-related stress.
A couple of years ago, the European Social Partners – employers' organizations and trade unions at European level – therefore negotiated a framework agreement on work-related stress.
Local Government Denmark was closely involved in the preparation of agreement and took part in the drafting of the agreement through the European organization for public employers CEEP (Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing Public services).
In Denmark, the framework agreement has been implemented by collective bargaining agreements in the public sector. Consequently, the Danish local authorities are now obliged to make guidelines for a combined effort in order to identify, prevent and manage problems linked to work-related stress in all their workspaces.
– The recent years, the combating of work-related stress has been a priority in the human resource policies in local authorities, says Peter Gorm Hansen, CEO at Local Government Denmark.
– To ease this important work in local authorities, Local Government Denmark launched a campaign to focus on various ways of identifying, preventing and managing problems with work-related stress and to provide local authorities with a set of tools that could improve the handling of work-related stress locally, explains Peter Gorm Hansen.
The booklet "Five-Year Stress Campaign in Denmark" can be downloaded in this website.
