#Let'sBelieveIt. 2026, year of Safety and Health at Work: from the motto to the necessary change
Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Occupational Risk Prevention Law, the Council of Ministers approved on November 11, 2025, at the proposal of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, the institutional declaration of 2026 as the Year of Safety and Health at Work.
The declaration, which those of us linked to the field of risk prevention and occupational health and safety celebrate, goes far beyond being a symbolic gesture: it is an opportunity to place occupational safety, health and well-being at the center of the public and business agenda, and throughout the year Fraternidad-Muprespa will work with this purpose.
We have created the #VamosACreérnoslo campaign to empower the work of the occupational risk prevention technician and give visibility to the value of safety and health at work, in all its aspects:
- For the PRL technicians themselves, to remove complexes and labels
- For companies, so that they prioritize and internalize safety and health at work
- For the institutions, to support it
- And society, to become aware
We dedicate about 90,000 hours to work in our lives, almost a third of the total time we are awake, so it is evident that talking about well-being in the work environment is key for people and a challenge for those of us who dedicate ourselves to it.
Working has always been a way of giving meaning to life: cultivating, creating or building. However, in a context marked by the culture of immediate leisure and the idealization of an effortless life, work runs the risk of being perceived as a burden, rather than as an opportunity.
Our work pivots on making work something good, but what should we understand by “good work”? In my opinion, it is one that meets three requirements:
- Does not damage because it protects the physical and mental integrity of the worker
- Allows you to live with dignity because it guarantees your economic sustainability and personal balance
- It is useful because it connects personal and business purpose
When these three conditions are met, work motivates, reduces absences and strengthens physical and mental health.
From taboo to dialogue: mental health enters the company
More than one billion people in the world live with a mental health disorder, approximately 15% of working-age adults. In the workplace, depression and anxiety cause productivity losses estimated at one trillion euros per year.
Before the pandemic, one in six people already suffered from anxiety or depression, with a higher incidence in women and people with lower incomes. COVID-19 only intensified this reality, making visible the need to talk about mental health in all spaces: society, administration, companies and homes.
Talking about certain topics in the workplace seemed impossible until it was socially assumed that ignoring them creates more risks than speaking openly. Companies assume that you cannot fix what you cannot see, nor can you improve what you do not understand.
That is why we have to talk about mental health in society and we have to talk about mental health in the company. Doing so is not a sign of weakness, but rather evidence of a mature preventive culture.
Large companies are beginning to take on organizational well-being projects that contribute to improving the worker's perception of their personal situation, which demonstrates the commitment of the business sector. with people and social needs.
SMEs and the self-employed, invisible protagonists of prevention
But in Spain only 0.1% of companies are large. 99% are SMEs and microSMEs. Those that do not reach ten employees represent 96% of the total. Hence the importance of the role played in health promotion by such relevant entities as the National Institute of Social Security, the various regional institutes for risk prevention and occupational health or the Mutual Collaborators with Social Security.
More than one and a half million workers did not go to work for a single day. The harmful effects of this reality for companies and society are evident: cost overruns, lower GDP, saturation of public health systems, economic vulnerability or lower productivity, among others.
But behind each absence there are different causes, and we cannot underestimate the role of the Mutual Collaborators with Social Security in the field of occupational risk prevention. The economic resources that Mutual Insurance Funds allocate to preventive activities are capped by rule (they cannot exceed 0.7% of the income from professional contingency fees of the last settled year) and by the strategic lines of the Preventive Activity Plan.
The 2026 one addresses, among other topics, “organizational factors and psychosocial risks in the work environment” as one of the priority areas of action. It also mentions “healthy habits in the work environment,” understanding health from a global vision that integrates physical, social and emotional aspects, and incorporates the “Vision Zero Work-Related Health Harm” approach, which goes beyond the traditional idea of zero accidents and proposes a comprehensive preventive culture.
Likewise, the Plan refers to the importance of advice by mutual societies to SMEs and self-employed workers. With these companies, which do not always have resources or specialized technical personnel, the work of support and awareness is essential.
For this reason, we spare no effort to provide useful and quality preventive content on all our channels through sites such as the Health Corner, the Walking towards Wellbeing program or the Campus Prevention courses.
Digital well-being: the new challenge of preventive culture
Furthermore, being aware that the work environment in which the vast majority of working people work is digital, at Fraternidad-Muprespa we are committed to knowing first-hand how this aspect impacts their well-being and thus being able to propose approaches that help manage it in a healthier way.
From there the First Digital Wellbeing Observatory was born, the result of collaboration with Fundación Personas y Empresas. 565 professionals from more than 400 companies addressed key aspects of digital well-being such as immediacy, technological load, multitasking, disconnection habits or relationships mediated by platforms.
Among the most notable conclusions, the normalization of immediacy and permeability outside of hours, the prevalence of multitasking and digital loading, the dominant passive disconnection and the gap between formal protocols and real practice. Digital well-being, but also analogue well-being, requires moving from the norm to practice. Without exemplary leadership, collective habits and tracking metrics, the culture of immediacy will continue to erode health, attention and productivity.
We will soon know what, for me, is the saddest data of the year: the number of work-related deaths in 2025. At the moment we know that in 2024 there were 796, 10.4% more than the previous year.
All of us, including the Mutual Collaborators with Social Security, are here to contribute to this scourge and ensure that the declaration of 2026 as the year of Safety and Health at Work does not remain a slogan, but rather is a cry for change, which must occur, pivoting on five axes: objectives, resources, training, leadership and a regulatory framework adjusted to social reality. #Let'sBelieveIt.
