From 19 to 24 October 2026, the European Week for Safety and Health at Work takes place, an EU-wide action week organised by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). This year the week focuses on psychosocial risks in the workplace, and marks the launch of a new edition of the Healthy Workplaces campaign.
What is the European Week for Safety and Health 2026?
According to EU-OSHA, the action week focuses on building sustainable workplaces across Europe that protect workers and help organisations succeed. The event listing describes the week itself as an EU-wide online event; EU-OSHA also lists related activities. For example, on 20 October 2026 a webinar from Finland will be held under the title “What Can We Learn from Nordic Efforts to Improve Psychosocial Working Conditions?”, discussing Nordic approaches to improving psychosocial working conditions. Anyone with an event, new research, data or a campaign on occupational safety is invited to share it with EU-OSHA, to encourage improvements in workplaces across the EU.
New campaign edition: Together for Mental Health Work
The start of the week also marks the launch of a new edition of the Healthy Workplaces campaign, titled “Healthy Workplaces Campaign: Together for Mental Health Work”. The campaign gives organisations, workers, social partners and other occupational safety and health stakeholders across the European Union a platform to share good practices for preventing psychosocial risks at work, such as workload and work-related stress, bullying and harassment. More information on taking part in the EU Week and the campaign is available on the campaign website healthy-workplaces.osha.europa.eu.
For EHS professionals across Europe, the initiative is relevant because, under the European Framework Directive 89/391/EEC, employers must assess and manage all occupational risks, psychosocial risks as much as physical ones. The good practices shared through the campaign can serve as a benchmark when drawing up or reviewing an organisation’s own prevention policy, whichever EU member state it operates in.
Context
EU-OSHA has long examined approaches to psychosocial risks through the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER). The third edition, ESENER-3, was carried out in 2019 among more than 45,000 establishments in 33 European countries. According to the survey’s summary, EU-OSHA concludes that dealing with difficult customers, patients or pupils remains a key risk factor for many organisations. At the same time, more workplaces than in earlier surveys report having procedures against bullying or harassment and action plans against work-related stress. The new campaign builds on EU-OSHA’s longer-running work on psychosocial risks.
Source: EU week for safety and health at work: together, we can prevent psychosocial risks, 19 October 2026
Additional research: Third European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER-3)
