The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) launched its EU-wide campaign, Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2026–2028: Together for mental health at work, on October 13, 2026, in Brussels, Belgium. During the launch event, European Commission Executive Vice President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness Roxana Mînzatu and EU-OSHA’s Executive Director William Cockburn discussed the European agenda for mental health at work.
Ceemet, following the tradition of collaborating with EU-OSHA, has become an Official Campaign Partner. Over the next two years, the campaign will put psychosocial risks and mental health at the centre of the European OSH conversation, with a Healthy Workplaces Summit in Bilbao at the end of 2028.
The collaboration between Ceemet and EU-OSHA is not recent. Ceemet was also a campaign partner for the 2023-2025 edition, “Safe and healthy work in the digital age”, which looked at the OSH implications of digital technologies, remote and hybrid work, platform work and algorithmic management. Several of these themes carry straight into the new campaign. The same digital tools that reshape how work is organised also reshape workload, autonomy, availability outside working hours and the boundary between work and home.
”Ensuring safe and healthy working environments for all workers is a core priority for European employers and an essential component of well-functioning labour markets. European employers therefore fully support the objective of preventing psychosocial risks and protecting mental health at work. Nevertheless, European employers also underline the need to recognise the positive role that quality work plays in mental health and social inclusion.”
– Delphine Rudelli
Ceemet’s position paper on mental health at work sets out three points we want the campaign to carry. First, mental health is a societal issue that requires a societal response. The work in the private sector is not the main driver of deteriorating mental health, and treating it as such misses the root causes. Second, work is generally good for people. It provides stability, purpose, community and a support network, as the isolation of the COVID years demonstrated in reverse. Policymakers should be highlighting that, not demonising work. Third, the EU OSH Framework Directive already offers a solid legal basis, complemented by the autonomous framework agreements on work-related stress and on harassment and violence at work. What employers need next is guidance, tools and best practice, particularly for SMEs, rather than a downstream OSH directive sitting on top of national systems that are, in many Member States, working well.
Encouragingly, this is largely how the campaign is framed. It is built around awareness raising, prevention and practical tools rather than new obligations, and it recognises explicitly that employers and OSH services are not expected to diagnose or treat conditions, while still having a clear duty to prevent psychosocial risks. Its emphasis on the principle of prevention, where organisational measures come before individual support, resonates with the realities of companies on the ground. This campaign is particularly timely, because the Quality Jobs Act, expected in December 2026, is likely to touch on health and safety matters as well.
The same logic of prevention is also behind Mind@Work, the two-year project running from February 2026 to January 2028 in which Ceemet is an associated partner. Coordinated by FIEC with the European Employers’ Institute and Fondazione ADAPT, and involves employers in chemical, commerce and hospitality sectors – ECEG, EuroCommerce and HOTREC – alongside us. The project starts from the premise that employers play a pivotal role and that the most useful thing Europe can do is strengthen their capacity to act. It delivers stakeholder research on regulatory frameworks and best practice, thematic webinars, and a practical action brief. Its first policy brief, published in July, examines how digitalisation, AI and the green transition are reshaping mental health at work.
We will keep you updated on campaign events and materials as they become available, including the European Week for Safety and Health at Work coming in October.