As the BRAVE-WOW project moves forward in its mission to prevent and tackle violence and harassment in the healthcare sector, we are encouraged by the significant progress made at the European level. Two recent updates from the European Commission underscore the growing commitment to ensuring a safe and dignified working environment for all EU workers—a goal that sits at the very heart of BRAVE-WOW.
A New Framework for a Zero-Tolerance Culture
A major milestone for our field is the signing of the updated Multi-Sectoral Guidelines to Prevent and Tackle Third-Party Violence and Harassment Related to Work. Signed on 6 May 2025 by social partners across five key sectors—including hospitals and healthcare—these guidelines establish a voluntary but robust framework for a zero-tolerance policy.
For BRAVE-WOW, these guidelines are particularly relevant as they address “third-party violence”—harassment perpetrated by patients, relatives, or the public. In healthcare, this remains one of the most prevalent yet under-reported forms of abuse.
Why These Guidelines Matter for BRAVE-WOW
The updated guidelines introduce several key pillars that align directly with the tools and research we are developing within our project:
- Addressing Cyberviolence: For the first time, the scope has been expanded to include digital harassment, acknowledging that the “world of work” now extends beyond the physical hospital walls.
- A Gender-Responsive Approach: The guidelines emphasise that women remain disproportionately targeted. BRAVE-WOW’s focus on the gendered nature of workplace violence finds a strong ally in this new EU-wide stance.
- Strengthening Risk Assessments: The guidelines call for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) assessments to specifically map harassment risks. This mirrors our project’s work on the Gender-Based Violence at Work Questionnaire (GBVW_Q), which helps organisations identify these exact vulnerabilities.
- Protection and Support: There is a renewed focus on confidential reporting and providing victims with the psychological and professional support they need to recover.
Social Dialogue: A Driver for Safer Healthcare
A subsequent report from 28 April 2026, “European Social Dialogue contributes to improving the health and safety of workers across the EU,” highlights that workers in the EU rate a safe working environment for both mental and physical health as their top priority. Through social dialogue, the EU is moving towards more harmonised standards for health and fitness checks and better implementation of the EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work.
At BRAVE-WOW, we believe that policy changes at the top must be matched by cultural changes on the ground. These new guidelines provide the “What,” and BRAVE-WOW is here to provide the “How”—through our training programmes, organisational self-assessment tools, and awareness campaigns.
Moving Forward Together
The implementation of these guidelines across the 50 million workers in the signatory sectors represents a massive step towards the “world of work” we envisage. We will continue to integrate these EU-level best practices into our ongoing pilots in Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Slovenia.
Stay tuned to our News section for further updates on how BRAVE-WOW is bringing these European standards into the local healthcare context.
References:
- European Commission (2025). EU sectoral social partners join forces to counter third-party violence and harassment related to work with updated Guidelines.
- European Commission (2026). European Social Dialogue contributes to improving the health and safety of workers across the EU.
About BRAVE-WOW BRAVE-WOW (Be Ready Against Violence and Harassment in the World Of Work) is a project co-funded by the European Union’s CERV programme. We work with healthcare organisations to build environments where violence and harassment are recognised, reported, and eliminated.