European Trade Union Committee for Education

On 09-10 June 2016, the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) and the European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE) gathered more than 70 participants in Bucharest, Romania for their closing conference of the joint project “Social Partners Promoting Decent Workplaces in the Education Sector for a Healthier Working Life”. During the two year project, the European social partners examined both causes of and possible solutions to prevent and combat psychosocial hazards in the education sector. With the aim to present the results of this project, the closing conference brought together representatives of education trade unions, education employers, teachers, school leaders and other education stakeholders from all levels of education. Via multiple presentations, participants were introduced into and gained a deeper understanding of  a number of topics related to psychosocial hazards and work-related stress in the education sector.

Echoing the words of welcome from Stéphane Vanoirbeck, member of the EFEE Executive Committee and Odile Cordelier, Bureau member of ETUCE, Prof. Dr. Bernhard Sieland,  from the Leuphana Universität Lüneburg in Germany, drew attention to the need of a healthy working life as the basis for quality education in the keynote speech. He called on participants to raise awareness, to break the taboo of psychosocial hazards in the education sector and to help teachers speak up about work-related stress. More insight in the structure of the EU Strategic Framework on Occupational Health and Safety and its implementation in the education sector as well as some results of the ESENER 2015 study were presented by Tim Tregenza from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. Dr. Hans-Joachim Lincke from the research team who had accompanied the project, summarised the project outcomes. The good practices collected in four school case studies in Belgium, Romania, Finland and Germany were screened by the project film. Stefaan Ceuppens, Policy Officer Social Dialogue of the European Commission, informed the participants about the European social dialogue and underlined the key role of European and national social partners in promoting decent workplaces. Furthermore he provided participants with some outcomes and good practice examples on Health and Safety issues from other sectoral social dialogue committees.

In two working groups sessions, participants reflected upon the draft joint practical guidelines on how to promote joint social partner initiatives at European, national, regional and local level to prevent and combat psychosocial hazards in education. They suggested amendments and discussed ways to effectively and efficiently implement the guidelines at European, national, regional and local level. The amended guidelines and results of the discussions are of great importance for the work of the social partners (ETUCE and EFEE) in the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for Education (ESSDE).

Presentations of the closing conference: FFAW - EU OSHA - European Commission - Prof. Dr. Sieland

Pictures of the closing conference