On Friday, December 19, TUNED and EUPAN, the European social partners in the sector of public central administration, agreed on a common position on work-related stress in central government administrations. The text was signed by Charles Cochrane, TUNED spokesman, and Paul Peny, French General Director for public administration.

 

This document, elaborated during the French Presidency of the EU, aims at adapting the intersectoral agreement of 2004 on work-related stress to the specificities of the central administration sector. The social partners recognise the negative impact of work-related stress both on the individuals and on the structures, listing work organisations, working conditions, communication and subjective factors as the main factors.

 

The common position foresees numerous measures for preventing, eliminating and reducting work-related stress, to be undertaken as soon as the beginning of the Czech Presidency of the EU. The European social partners also commit themselves to identify interesting practices and policies in the next months.

 

The CESI welcomes this common position, which, according to its Secretary General Helmut Müllers, "is both encouraging for the amelioration of the working conditions of public agents and for the future cooperation of EUPAN and TUNED". TUNED, formed out of CESI and EPSU, and EUPAN are currently engaged in a test-phase of a formal social dialogue, which will end in December 2009. "The excellent results which have been achieved under French Presidency, including this common agreement, shows that the formalisation of our social dialogue is both a logical and a reachable aim", told Helmut Müllers.