CESI supports European Parliament Committee request for impact assessment and improved legislation on psychosocial risks at work

The committee report marks an important shift in EU policy: Stress, burnout, harassment and other mental-health problems are treated not simply as individual wellbeing issues, but as occupational safety and health risks linked to working conditions and work organisation.
The proposed framework would introduce responsibilities for employers, including regular psychosocial risk assessments and prevention plans; measures against violence, harassment, bullying and discrimination; assessments ahead of major organisational or technological changes; safeguards against excessive workloads and intrusive algorithmic monitoring; respect for the right to disconnect; and sustainable, individualised return-to-work arrangements following psychosocial illness.
Importantly, the report also addresses the potential recognition of illnesses caused by psychosocial risks as occupational diseases and a possible shift in the burden of proof where workers can demonstrate health damage following exposure to such risks. Specifically, where a worker establishes facts indicating exposure to psychosocial risk factors - such as bullying, harassment, violence or burnout - and demonstrates an injury or health impairment consistent with that exposure, the report calls for a presumption that the harm is work-related. In such circumstances, the employer would bear the burden of demonstrating that the injury or health damage was not caused by the working conditions. The text also calls on Member States, where appropriate, to introduce mechanisms alleviating the burden of proof, while ensuring legal certainty and safeguards against abusive or manifestly unfounded claims.
The text still points clearly towards improved EU legislation on psychosocial risks at work, even though it asks the European Commission to conduct an impact assessment first, to review existing legislation and to carry out a competitiveness and SME test before presenting any legislative proposal. Given the scale and severity of work-related stress, burnout and other mental health problems across Europe, there are strong grounds to expect that such an assessment will identify significant remaining gaps in the current framework. In this sense, the impact assessment should be seen less as abandoning the legislative objective than as an additional evidence-based step towards establishing the need, scope and proportionality of binding EU action.
CESI welcomes enforceable EU minimum standards. It has consistently advocated this approach, from its earlier work on occupational stress and its 2023 contribution and the EU’s comprehensive approach to mental health to a 2026 CESI@noon exchange with rapporteur Estelle Ceulemans and its new partnership in EU-OSHA’s “Together for Mental Health at Work” campaign. Todays's committee vote is therefore an important step towards translating longstanding demands into an improved legislative framework.
The compromise text also reflects key trade-union priorities: clearer definitions of psychosocial risks, employer responsibility for risks arising from work organisation, worker participation, effective enforcement and recognition of occupational diseases. By using the legislative initiative procedure at a crucial stage in the development of the forthcoming Quality Jobs Act, the European Parliament is increasing pressure on the European Commission to move from voluntary guidance towards binding EU rules.
The committee report is still subject to a confirmation vote by the fully plenary of the European Parliament, foreseen in October 2026. CESI will continue to advocate for improved EU legislation that ensures psychosocial risks are systematically prevented, assessed and addressed as an integral part of occupational safety and health.

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