Violence has occurred or been threatened at about one third of Finnish workplaces during the past three years, according to a study published on Monday by the Finnish Confederation of Professionals (STTK).
About one in five respondents reported being the target of actual or threatened violence on the job within the past three years. In most incidents the perpetrators were customers, and women reported twice as many incidents as men.
The study used the World Health Organisation's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual...that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation."
Violence appears to be particularly endemic in the social, health and education fields. Nearly a quarter of those in the social services and health sectors said they had experienced physical violence, compared to just three percent of those in industrial sectors, for instance.
Mental violence common on social and healthcare
Nearly 40 percent of those in health and social work said they had faced what they described as mental violence from customers, managers or co-workers. Again, women were roughly twice as likely to report such experiences.
Besides being threatened or targeted with physical violence, respondents reported incidents such as being shouted at, insulted, denied access to information or having false information spread about them.
Statistics Finland defines mental violence or bullying at work as "isolation, invalidating of work, threats, talking behind one's back and other pressurising [sic] directed to a member of the work community".
"This shows a clear need to improve management and supervisory work. There must be zero tolerance for inappropriate treatment and harassment at all workplaces," said STTK Director Katarina Murto.
The STTK commissioned the study by Aula Research, which queried just over 2,000 employees in June and July. According to the pollster, "the sample represents working Finns with a weighting adjustment for age, gender and region".
The STTK includes 15 trade unions with over half a million members.