European Parliament pushes for stronger EU rules on psychosocial risks at work

The report, a legislative initiative resolution calling for stronger protection against work-related psychosocial risks, including stress, burnout and associated physical and mental health disorders, was adopted with 413 votes in favour, 210 against and 29 abstentions, the resolution reflects substantial priorities that CESI advocated during negotiations on the text.

The European Parliament asks the European Commission to assess existing legislation and carry out an impact assessment, complemented by a competitiveness and SME test, before submitting, depending on the results, a legislative proposal on psychosocial risks, stress and mental health at work. The resolution does not itself introduce new legal obligations.

At the heart of the recommendations is a call for minimum requirements to prevent, eliminate or reduce psychosocial risks at source. The envisaged framework would cover workers, trainees and apprentices across both the public and private sectors, placing organisational, structural and participatory obligations on employers.

Regular risk assessments, including following significant changes to work organisation or restructuring, would examine excessive workloads, work intensity, long or unpredictable hours, harassment, violence, discrimination, job insecurity and interference between work and private life. Assessments would be followed by concrete prevention plans. The resolution stresses that workplace wellbeing programmes or individual resilience training cannot replace employers’ responsibility to address organisational causes of harm.

The report also calls for a zero-tolerance approach to violence and harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying, cyber-violence and violence by customers, patients or service users. Confidential and accessible reporting procedures and protection against retaliation should support this approach.

The report further identifies health and social care, public administration and other services involving direct contact with the public as sectors facing particularly high psychosocial risks. Staff shortages, high work intensity and third-party violence can combine to place significant pressure on workers.

Reacting to the resolution, Paloma Repila, President of CESI’s Expert Commission ‘Healthcare Services’, stresses that future EU rules must apply equally to public and private employers. Public administrations, including those responsible for healthcare, social services and education, should have the same obligations to prevent, assess, address and monitor psychosocial risks, backed by effective supervision, accountability and sanctions.

She calls for public administrations to be accountable for organisational decisions that create or worsen these risks, including chronic staff shortages, excessive workloads and working hours, inadequate replacement arrangements, job insecurity and objectives incompatible with the safe provision of public services.

Healthcare and social care professionals should receive priority attention in future legislation. Staffing shortages should be recognised as a psychosocial risk, with health authorities required to address workforce planning, staffing levels and replacement coverage where shortages endanger workers’ physical or mental health. Specific prevention, protection and victim-support measures should address physical, verbal, psychological and digital violence by patients, relatives and service users.

Paloma Repila said: “If the European Parliament recognises staff shortages, excessive workloads, and violence against workers as structural causes of psychosocial risks, public health administrations cannot be exempt from the obligations, controls, and responsibilities required of the private sector. Protecting the mental health of those who sustain healthcare and care systems must become a strategic priority of European occupational health policy.”

The resolution also addresses risks linked to digital technologies. Before significant restructuring or the introduction of automated decision-making or monitoring systems, employers should assess potential psychosocial impacts in cooperation with workers and their representatives. Algorithmic management should not create excessive monitoring or pressure, and meaningful human oversight should remain in place. The text also supports the right to disconnect.

MEPs call for recognition that psychosocial risks can lead to occupational diseases, including mental health conditions, and for a review of the European schedule of occupational diseases where necessary. Supported and sustainable return-to-work arrangements should help workers following long-term or repeated absences linked to stress, burnout, bullying, harassment or violence, through adjustments to tasks, workloads, working time or work organisation.

Workers and their representatives should be informed, consulted and meaningfully involved throughout risk assessment and prevention. Stronger labour inspectorates, specialised training and sufficient resources should support effective enforcement.

CESI considers the resolution a step towards the stronger EU framework CESI has advocated: treating psychosocial risks as an occupational safety and health issue requiring prevention through better working conditions.

For CESI, the next step must be to translate these recommendations into enforceable protection and concrete improvements in workplaces, including public services.

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