Brazil: Tackling Psychosocial Risks for a Healthier Future

Since the pandemic, the topic of mental health has gained significant attention in the job market and attracted global interest.

In Brazil, the diagnosis of mental disorders among employees has increased, presenting new challenges for both employers and employees. Long periods away from work, vague diagnoses, misuse of the social security system, new medical classifications of mental disorders, and poor expert examination reports are just some of the daily challenges faced.

Under Brazilian Social Security Law, as a general rule, employees absent from work for more than 15 days due to a medical condition are referred to the Social Security Institute to apply for a sick-leave benefit. The employee will be subject to a medical examination by the Social Security doctor to determine if the reason for the medical leave is work-related.

Any work-related benefit granted by Social Security provides employees with protection against termination for 12 months after their medical discharge. The employees are also entitled to receive Severance Pay Fund Deposits (8% of the employee’s compensation) during the entire period of sick leave. Another consequence is the increase in payroll taxation as the company’s Accidents Prevention Factor increases.

When it comes to mental disorders, it is especially difficult to provide a concrete diagnosis based on a single appointment with a doctor and, in our opinion, it is almost impossible to determine certain types of diagnosis, such as "burnout," when the doctor is not familiar with the employee’s work conditions or has not analyzed the workplace and the activities that were performed.

However, there are a significant number of decisions from the Social Security Institute recognizing employees’ illnesses as work-related, exclusively based on the information provided by the employee.

On the other hand, if the company tries to challenge this decision administratively, a decision can take years (or not be issued at all), so many cases are never resolved.

Recently, a new level of complexity was added to the discussion, with changes to the Health and Safety Normative Resolution No. 1 to determine that companies must provide measures to prevent and manage occupational risks in the workplace through their mandatory health and safety document (the Risk Management Program). 

Among the physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic, and accident risks, psychosocial factors were included. This means that companies must identify possible elements that may affect employees’ mental health, monitor those situations, and mitigate the risks associated with mental illnesses.

Mental disorders may emerge from several factors that are not related to the work performed at the company and that are completely out of the company’s control, but the obligation for companies to take a deeper look into the matter is an important starting point to help prevent work-related issues.

Companies will need to become more aware of situations such as moral harassment and excessive overtime and adopt effective measures to take care of employees’ mental health.

A solid program to prevent mental health issues can benefit the company in several different ways, but it will depend on the level of accountability by the doctors analyzing an employee’s complaint.

This new measure by the Ministry of Labor was expected to come into force on May 26, 2025, but after discussions between the Ministry of Labor and unions, there are rumors that it could be postponed to 2026.

Although there is no confirmation about this postponement yet, if it really happens, companies should take the opportunity to focus even more on the matter and be better prepared for the new regulations while ensuring a healthier work environment for their employees.

Isadora Varella and Maury Lobo are attorneys with CGM Advogados in São Paolo. © 2025 CGM Advogados. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission of Lexology.