Eurofedop Seminar - Stress Burnout & Bullying
Dublin June 10th-13th 2004 - A Summary by Frank Rogers

I attended the above Seminar along with the National Chairman, Colin Moses, General Secretary Brian Caton (who was also the Conference President) and NEC Members Steve Gough and Steve Cox.

What is Eurofedop? It is a group of European democratic Trade Unions established at the first Congress of the International Federation of Employees in the Public Service held in Vienna in 1996.The 52 Members are Public Service Trade Unions from all over Europe, including, of course, the POA.

The principal aim of Eurofedop is to promote co-operation between Public Service Trade Unions throughout Europe and represent the interests of Employees in the Public Service to the European Union. It is recognized by the International Labour Organisation.
This Seminar was organized to focus on Stress, Burnout and Bullying in Public Service employment. The aim was to define a common position on the role of the European Union in fighting the consequences of Stress, Burnout and Bullying. The Eurofedop position could be quoted as follows -

"The aim of this Seminar is to compare and contrast experiences and possible solutions, in order to draw up a list of the items which are of particular importance to our members. The conclusions thus obtained will serve as the basis for our discussions with European Policy makers."

The Seminar

- began on the afternoon of Thursday June 10th with, that day a 7pm finish. The three Topics were dealt with separately with a Moderator and Brian Caton chairing each Session. Speakers addressed each Session followed by a Question & Answer Session. There were 5 working languages for the Seminar with a bank of Interpreters at the back of the room and what a fantastic job they did in providing almost simultaneous translation.
Steve Cox read a moving account of an Officer who had been medically retired after being involved in dealing with numerous deaths (and attempted suicides) and other major incidents

- this was heard (apart from the Interpreters) in total silence such was its impact on those present. Theory and Statistics are one thing - the reality of the problems Burnout can cause are another.
I also addressed the Seminar on Friday morning (the full text of my Lecture is to be found on this website) effectively embracing all three topics and dealt with

• Statistics on Stress from the UK;
  
• A statistical analysis of 155 Cases I had dealt with for the POA;
  
• Primary situations where Stress and Burnout arose within the Prison Service;
  
• The decisions in Hatton v Sutherland (2002) & Barber v Somerset CC (2004) - see articles on these Cases elsewhere on this website;
  
• Preventing Stress In The Prison Service;
  
• Measures being taken by the TUC 7 the HSE - especially the plan by the HSE to introduce in 2005 "Management Standards for Tackling Work Related Stress."

The most telling Statistic I quoted was perhaps the following -
"The Times 25.5.04 - reported that the Prison Service lost the equivalent of a year's work for 3000 full time Staff due to sickness absence in 2003 (National Audit Office). Cost - £80M in lost Staff time excluding the costs of additional Staff to make up shortfalls. Reasons for absences included Stress & depression. In 2002/3 Staff on average took 14.7 days off sick. ….."

One of the best contributions (in my view anyway!) was by Barbara Allison the Director of Human resources for the Scottish Prison Service. She spoke of consultation and co-operation with Unions! She gave details of what seemed to be a fair and successful Mediation Process - all of this seemed to be light years away from what we experience in England & Wales! There was much in her talk to ponder on and I anticipate that the NEC Members present may well want to raise some of her ideas and Policies with the Director General.

On the final day of the Seminar outcomes were agreed and draft Policies discussed. These are to be further reviewed before recommendations are put forward to the European Union. There were Speakers from The European Agency for Health & Safety at Work and The European Commission.

A lot was learnt by the POA Delegation and we, in turn, were able to demonstrate to those present what a major problem Stress is for those working in the Prison Service.
I concluded my talk as follows -

"The cost of Stress in terms of human tragedy is too high a price to pay so far as the POA is concerned. The financial cost to the Prison Service is too great a price for them to pay.
The issue is too great for it to be dealt with as part of the Employer/Employee trench warfare that so dominates current relationships.

A unified approach is essential if there is to be any serious effort made to attack the problem at its source, rather than plastering over the cracks ignoring the fact that the building is in danger of collapse.

The time has gone for knee jerk reactions to stress related illnesses - sacking Staff for being ill ignores why they became ill and guarantees that others will joint hem on long term sick leave.

This Conference will hopefully be the first step in a European approach to tackling this problem in a proactive non-partisan manner."

All in all a very interesting 3 days - sad to see how great a problem Stress is throughout Europe and to hear Speakers from different countries say the same thing - all too well understood by the POA Delegation. We managed one night in Dublin which was of course memorable and the Irish POA, especially, John Clinton (who himself made perceptive and thoughtful contributions to the Seminar) were excellent hosts. The production and organization of the Seminar by Eurofedop was first class and I look forward, on your behalf, to hopefully being able to attend further Seminars in the future.