El proceso
The Operating System
This section establishes the mindset and mechanism for negotiation before diving into specific topics. Negotiation is not a one-off event but a continuous cycle. The IncreMe-n-tal process helps worker representatives anticipate change, negotiate solutions, and monitor their real impact over time.
Anticipate
Use information rights and worker feedback to identify risks before change is implemented.
Negotiate
Bring the issue into structured dialogue with management, involving technical experts and joint bodies.
Monitor
Track whether agreements actually work using review mechanisms, KPIs, and joint committees.
This cycle should be repeated regularly: anticipate → negotiate → monitor → anticipate again.
Data Collection Template
Before starting negotiations, worker representatives need to build a clear mandate based on workers’ concerns and workplace evidence. This tool helps TU representatives collect structured information from workers and transform it into concrete priorities for negotiation.
It can be used:
- during workplace conversations
- in preparation for meetings with management
- as a quick diagnostic before opening negotiations
The questions below focus on three key areas where organisational and technological change often creates tensions. Answer the questions below based on the situation in your workplace. Each answer will help identify possible issues to investigate or bring into negotiations.
Step 1: Information and Transparency
Have worker representatives requested technical information about the planned change?
Examples include: introduction of digital tools – performance monitoring systems – organisational restructuring – new production technologies
Step 2: Work Organisation and Workload
Have workers reported possible changes in workload, pace, or performance expectations?
Examples: increased productivity targets – tighter performance monitoring – expectations to remain reachable outside hours
Step 3: Psychosocial Risks
Have workers reported stress, pressure, or isolation linked to recent changes?
Examples include: technostress – increased performance pressure – isolation linked to digital or remote work
Step 4: The Drivers of Change
Digital Tools & Surveillance (Internal Drivers):
Do workers feel their privacy is monitored?
Green Transition & Regulation (External Drivers):
Step 5: Skills and Future
Preparedness (Training and development):
Worker Sentiment:
National Highlights
Explore how the Increme-n-tal cycle is being applied across different national contexts. Click on a country to see specific findings and local priorities.
Focus Belgium
In Belgium, psychosocial risks and mental health at work are addressed through a well-developed regulatory framework on occupational safety and wellbeing. The 1996 Wellbeing at Work Act and its subsequent updates require employers to assess and manage psychosocial risks such as stress, burnout, harassment and poor working conditions.
Despite this comprehensive framework, psychosocial risks remain a growing concern. Workers report increasing work intensity, high workloads and difficulties maintaining a healthy work–life balance, factors that contribute to stress, burnout and absenteeism. Global trends such as digitalisation, organisational change and workforce diversification further influence these risks.
Survey findings in the metalworking sector highlight issues such as poor internal communication, excessive workload and changing work organisation as key psychosocial challenges. At the same time, stigma around mental health can discourage workers from openly discussing these problems. In this context, social partners and worker representatives play a crucial role in promoting awareness, strengthening prevention policies and fostering workplace cultures that support mental wellbeing.
Consult the National Highlight for Belgium for further insights.
Focus Ireland
In Ireland, mental health at work is addressed primarily through the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, which requires employers to manage workplace risks, including those related to stress and wellbeing. However, psychosocial risks are not explicitly regulated and are mainly addressed through guidance and good practice promoted by the Health and Safety Authority.
Evidence from research in the metal sector indicates that psychosocial risks are increasing and include work intensity, financial pressure, job insecurity and poor organisational communication. Survey results show that stress (53%), anxiety (41%) and burnout (34%) are among the most commonly reported consequences of these risks.
The research also highlights important barriers to addressing mental health at work, including stigma, limited awareness among managers, lack of training and insufficient formal policies to prevent work-related stress. Strengthening workplace awareness, improving managerial training and promoting dialogue between employers and worker representatives can play an important role in developing more effective approaches to psychosocial risk prevention.
Consult the National Highlight for Ireland for further insights.
Focus Italy
In Italy, mental health in the workplace is increasingly recognised as an important issue, particularly in sectors such as metalworking where psychosocial risks remain widespread but often underestimated. While legislation requires employers to assess work-related stress and protect workers’ health, implementation across companies is uneven.
Research highlights that excessive workloads, poor internal communication, work-life interference, and digital monitoring are among the most common stress factors affecting workers. Conditions such as stress, anxiety, burnout, and exhaustion are reported frequently, with particularly strong impacts on women, parents, young workers, and workers in precarious employment.
Despite growing awareness among companies and social partners, concrete prevention measures and psychological support programmes remain limited. Strengthening worker participation, improving organisational practices, and integrating psychosocial risk prevention into workplace policies are therefore key priorities.
Consult the National Highlight for Italy for further insights.
Focus Slovakia
In Slovakia, mental health at work is primarily addressed within the occupational safety and health (OSH) framework. The Labour Code (Act No. 311/2001) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Act No. 124/2006) establish employers’ responsibilities to ensure safe and healthy working conditions, including the prevention of psychosocial risks such as stress and burnout.
Research and survey findings in the metalworking sector indicate that psychosocial risks are widespread and linked to factors such as high workload, ineffective communication within organisations and financial insecurity among workers. Burnout, stress and headaches or eye fatigue are among the most commonly reported consequences.
Evidence from interviews and questionnaires also highlights structural barriers to addressing mental health at work, including hierarchical workplace cultures, fear of speaking openly about stress and the prioritisation of productivity over employee wellbeing. Strengthening awareness, improving communication and promoting preventive strategies through workplace dialogue can therefore play a key role in supporting workers’ mental health.
Consult the National Highlight for Slovakia for further insights.
Focus Slovenia
In Slovenia, mental health at work is increasingly recognised as an important component of occupational safety and health. The regulatory framework already includes provisions addressing psychosocial risks through labour law and occupational safety legislation, requiring employers to assess and manage risks such as stress, burnout and workplace harassment.
Evidence from surveys and interviews in the metalworking sector highlights several key challenges, including high levels of stress and burnout, heavy workloads, job insecurity and poor organisational communication. Workers also report difficulties related to work–life balance and emotional demands at work.
Despite the existence of a regulatory framework, the effective implementation of preventive measures remains uneven across workplaces. Social partners can therefore play a crucial role in strengthening awareness, improving workplace practices and promoting preventive measures to support workers’ mental health.
Consult the National Highlight for Slovenia for further insights.
Focus Spain
In Spain, mental health at work has become a growing policy concern, as psychosocial risks such as stress, anxiety and burnout have increased in recent years. Evidence shows a steady rise in sick leave related to mental health problems, particularly among women and younger workers. These issues are often linked to organisational factors such as excessive workloads, time pressure, job insecurity and poor workplace communication.
Although Spanish legislation on occupational health and safety requires employers to protect workers from all work-related risks, psychosocial risks are not regulated through a specific legal framework. As a result, their prevention depends largely on general health and safety obligations and on workplace practices.
Collective bargaining and worker representation can therefore play an important role in addressing these risks by promoting preventive measures, improving workplace organisation and strengthening worker participation in risk assessment processes.
Consult the National Highlight for Spain for further insights.
Focus Turkey
In Turkey, mental health at work is mainly addressed within the broader occupational safety and health framework. The national legislation on occupational safety (Law No. 6331) requires employers to assess and manage workplace risks, including psychosocial risks, although specific provisions on mental health remain limited.
In the metal sector, psychosocial risks are influenced by factors such as job insecurity, high workload, time pressure, poor organisational communication and financial concerns. Survey data show that stress, absenteeism, burnout and anxiety are among the most frequently reported consequences of these risks among workers.
Research also highlights that awareness of psychosocial risks among both employees and management remains insufficient, representing one of the main barriers to prevention. Social partners and workplace representatives therefore play an important role in promoting awareness, improving training and strengthening preventive measures to support workers’ mental health.
Consult the National Highlight for Turkey for further insights.
