Mental health and conditions of work environments: balance and proposals for progress in terms of the Law of the European Union

Abstract

People spend a very important time of our lives at work. Therefore, enjoying a work environment free of elements of psychosocial toxicity (eg stress, violence, harassment, burnout and other psychosocial risks) is key to enjoying good mental health, also for the benefit of greater economic productivity and more sustainable. Consequently, mental health is configured as part of the human fundamental civil and social right to effective protection of health, along with physical health (art. 31 CDFUE, art. 3 CSE, art. 15 CE) and also as a prerequisite for developing work skills, professional skills, as well as social and human ones, and productivity. However, the reality is very different, because it presents a great fracture between the norm and its practice. One working person in three perceives that they experience stress at work, contributingtoaroundhalfofalllostworkdays.TheEuropeanEconomicandSocialCommittee (EESC) has shown that precarious working conditions affect mental health problems. The European Parliament and the Commission have decided to promote a global strategy to improve mental health at work, giving a special role to the psychosocial management of occupational risks in work environments, digitized or not. The CJEU has recently handed down some relevant decisions that advance the effectiveness of such an approach. The Spanish presidency of the European Union for the second semester of 2023 has proposed as one of its priorities to advance in this program, achieving concrete results, both in terms of regulations and in terms of the resources available to improve mental health, outside and inside work. It will not be easy, because there is no agreement on the regulatory model between the community institutions or between the social partners. This study offers a thorough analysis of the main regulatory and management elements of this objective.