Spain's Safety Institute Issues Workplace Mental Health Playbook as Brussels Faces Pressure to Legislate

Spain's national institute for workplace safety and health, the INSST, has published a practical guide to protecting mental health on the job. Titled "Manual de buenas prácticas en la promoción de la salud mental en el trabajo – Jahr 2026" (Manual of good practices in promoting mental health at work – Year 2026), the handbook is built around a single organising framework for company practice.

Its stated aims: prevent work-related risks more effectively, reinforce general workplace health promotion, and catch psychological strain earlier.

Prevention and support woven together

Rather than treating psychological strain as a standalone issue, the INSST approach links risk assessment, prevention and concrete day-to-day help for staff. Classic occupational safety measures sit alongside targeted employee-support initiatives in one combined model.

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The manual lands in the same month as a continent-wide push. On 13 October 2026, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) launched its multi-year healthy workplaces campaign under the slogan "Together for mental health at work".

Running until 2028, the campaign seeks to embed systematic prevention of psychosocial risks as a fixed component of workplace safety across every sector of the economy.

Survey lays out the scale of the problem

Fresh data explains why the issue has climbed political and corporate agendas. The EU-OSHA "OSH Pulse 2025" survey found that 44 per cent of employees in the European Union work under strong time pressure or suffer from work overload.

Around 37 per cent reported general exhaustion. A further 29 per cent said they had experienced work-related symptoms — or symptoms worsened by work — such as stress, depression or anxiety.

German sickness records tell a similar story. According to the absenteeism report (Fehlzeiten-Report) from the Scientific Institute of the AOK (WIdO), presented on 1 October 2026, days lost to mental illness among AOK-insured members rose from 284 days per 100 members in 2016 to 403 days in 2025 — an increase of 42 per cent in ten years.

For diagnosable exhaustion conditions such as burnout, the volume of lost days over the same period climbed from 11.0 to 19.5 days per 100 members, a rise of 77 per cent.

Parliament votes for tougher rules

Pressure for binding standards is mounting at the European level too. On 6 October 2026, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on psychosocial risks, stress and mental health at work, with 413 votes in favour, 210 against and 29 abstentions.

In it, MEPs called on the European Commission to examine a specific legislative initiative covering psychosocial workplace risks. The Commission now has three months from the resolution's adoption to respond; no legally binding directive has yet been agreed.

Among the resolution's core recommendations are regular risk assessments for psychosocial hazards, particularly ahead of company restructurings.

With regulators and lawmakers sharpening their focus on workplace health, keeping your broader safety obligations in order matters more than ever. A free Health & Safety Toolkit bundles the assessments, checklists and templates UK employers need to meet their legal duties and protect their people. Get the free Health & Safety Toolkit

The Parliament also backs rules on the right to disconnect, the appointment of competent workplace contact persons, and structured processes for supporting employees returning after long periods of sickness. The new INSST manual picks up these same fields of action at company level, giving employers practical tools to put them into practice.