[Harassment of personnel in contact with the public: from experiencing aggressive behaviour to preventing it]

The Agricultural Social Mutual Insurance System (MSA) has been mobilised to support a corporate approach in the perspective to decrease mortal acts of violence or aggression. The plan brought together the skills of all the companies' actors (management, hygiene committees, safety and working conditions committee, occupational health and safety at work, and salaried workers). The MSA occupational health departments carried out a situational inventory (through a survey of salaried workers exposed to the risk of aggression). An intervention methodology was addressed to the occupational medical practitioners (PECVAT Protocol). A corporate framework agreement has specified the plan that was developed by company and the actors concerned. Finally, an evaluation enabled them to define the level at which this prevention intervention should be implemented.

[Psychosocial risk]

Psychosocial risk is an emerging hazard in occupational health, also present in the agricultural sector with specific particularities. It is not limited to occupational stress, of which the prevalence is 28 percent in Europe, but also involves the risk of mental distress associated with the professional activity. The French and European regulations now require that work conditions, work organization, as well as mental health be taken into consideration in occupational risk assessment. In companies, the external violence with the public and internal violence among employees are considered. A global approach makes it possible to repair or to limit the effects on individuals but also to act on the source. In the agricultural environment, psychosocial risk is regularly studied and various appropriate prevention methods are implemented as far ahead of the risk as possible. An evaluation survey on stress level as well as a management protocol for workplace assault victims are presented.