site.bta CITUB Demands Trade Unions, Employers Sign Agreement to Prevent Violence, Stress at Work

CITUB Demands Trade Unions, Employers Sign Agreement to Prevent Violence,
Stress at Work


Sofia, October 24 (BTA) - The Confederation of Independent Trade
Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) is demanding that trade unions and
workers sign an agreement to prevent violence and stress at
work, the Director of the Institute for Social and Trade Union
Research with CITUB, Lyuben Tomev, told a news conference
Friday. A variant of the agreement has been ready since the end
of last year, but the confederation is waiting for the position
of the employers.

CITUB wants concrete programmes at enterprises to reduce
stress-generating environment through risk assessment.

According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work,
52 per cent of the people working in Bulgaria thinks stressful
occasions on the job are frequent or very frequent. Just 7 per
cent say they have not been subjected to stress and 40 per cent
say such cases are very rare. The survey shows that
reorganization or insecurity at work are the most frequently
cited reasons for stress (72 per cent of respondents), followed
by extended working hours or too much work (66 per cent) and
insults or harassment (59 per cent).

The lack of adequate ratio between the work done and the salary
given is also among the factors leading to stress, as well as a
discrepancy between the results of work and career development
and work in shifts and on weekends and holidays.

The TU representatives said the people working in healthcare,
education, the state administration and the IT sector were among
the most suffering from stress at work.

Slava Zlatanova, Deputy Chair of the TU Federation in Healthcare
with CITUB, and Petya Nedkova, Deputy Chair of the Bulgarian
Association of Healthcare Professionals, said that too much
workload, low payment and the lack of prospects are developing a
sort of "cindering" syndrome in medical circles.

Nurses in Bulgaria are at an average age of 50 and after 10
years the country will have serious problems in the sector,
Zlatanova and Nedkova said. Both insist on a regulation of the
work of healthcare professionals.

On the other hand, the people with creative professions working
for themselves are subject to the least stress, the trade
unionists commented.