Evaluate the workload, prevent burnout: quality of public services (justice, health, residences) without taking care of the mental health of the workers?

Commentary on the Rulings of the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands/Las Palmas 485/2020, of 26 May, and of Madrid 410/2020, of 16 June, and 222/2021, of 23 March

Abstract

Workload is one of the most important psychosocial risk factors in organizations. Employees subjected to work overloads for a long time are at risk of high stress, leading to episodes of anxiety and work-related stress reactions. When this imbalance, between high workloads and reduced control, is chronic, workers can suffer from situations of professional burnout. A growing number of court cases have emphasized the business obligation to assess workloads to avoid work stress and professional burnout, otherwise incurring in a clear violation of the duty to prevent psychosocial risks at work. This analysis gives an account of the state of the judicial interpretive art in this important issue of occupational health.