Mental Health at Work: What Are the Employer’s Obligations?
A management meeting around a long wooden table in an old high-ceilinged French office
The real framework of employer obligations on mental health at work in France: article L. 4121-1, the prevention principles, the single risk assessment document, harassment, and the written records that prove them.

News : The European Parliament is examining a legislative initiative titled “Psychosocial risks, stress and mental health at work”, led by rapporteur Estelle Ceulemans in the employment and social affairs committee. Referred back to committee on 12 March 2026, it is due in plenary indicatively on 5 October 2026, and asks the Commission to make an annual psychosocial risk assessment compulsory. Nothing has been adopted: French law does not change today, but the direction is clear, and the existing framework already binds employers (European Parliament legislative observatory, procedure 2026/2023(INL), accessed 2 September 2026).

This article is for HR managers and site directors who want to know what the French Labour Code expects of them on mental health. I say it upfront: I am a fractional HR director, a trainer and a coach, and I am not a lawyer. What I write here is a general marker; on a specific case, have it validated by an employment lawyer or by your occupational health service.

Under article L. 4121-1 of the French Labour Code, an employer must take the measures necessary to ensure safety and protect the physical and mental health of workers. On mental health, that translates into assessing psychosocial risks, recording that assessment in the single risk assessment document, running prevention, information and training actions, and organising work accordingly.

Mental health at work: the employer’s obligation rests on article L. 4121-1

Article L. 4121-1 of the French Labour Code (in French) requires the employer to take the measures necessary to ensure safety and protect the physical and mental health of workers. Those two words, “and mental”, change the conversation: psychological health is in the text, not at the margins of prevention.

The same article sets out the measures expected: prevention actions, information and training actions, an adapted organisation and adapted means.

This is a duty of care. I stay with that term and with the text: characterising the exact reach of that duty is legal analysis, and that is the point on which I refer people to an employment lawyer rather than deciding in their place.

What I see on assignment is not ill will: the management team has “done something”, a conference, a helpline, but nothing is tied to a risk assessment, nothing is written, nothing is dated. Yet article L. 4121-1 does not speak of intentions. It speaks of measures, organisation and means.

Article L. 4121-2 (in French) adds the nine general prevention principles: avoid risks, assess those that cannot be avoided, combat the risk at source, adapt the work to the person, and plan prevention including how work is organised. That last one is the most often forgotten, and yet you do not combat chronic overload at source with a stress-management workshop. It is also the direction of public policy: the French occupational health plan 2026-2030 (in French), presented on 5 June 2026 before the national council on working conditions, lists among its five priorities the promotion of mental health, a national cause for 2025-2026, and the prevention of psychosocial risks.

Five texts to know, and the written record that proves each one

This is the grid I use when an HR manager asks me where to start. The last column is what makes the principle verifiable.

Obligation Text What it concretely implies The written record that proves it
Ensure safety, protect physical and mental health L. 4121-1 Prevention, information and training, adapted organisation and means, psychological field included A signed prevention policy, a dated action plan, training attendance sheets
Apply the general prevention principles L. 4121-2 Avoid, assess, combat at source, adapt the work to the person, plan Organisational decisions, the scoping note for a reorganisation and the analysis of its effects
Assess risks and record the results R. 4121-1 A psychosocial risk section kept up to date in the single risk assessment document A dated, versioned document, with method, work units and participants
Prevent and address workplace harassment L. 1152-1 A reporting channel everyone knows, effective handling, investigation without delay A circulated procedure, a register of reports, an investigation report and its follow-up
Organise individual health monitoring L. 4624-1 and following A real link with the occupational physician, return-to-work visits, adjustment proposals Appointment letters, the physician’s opinion, the employer’s written response

This is a reading marker, not an audit: other obligations apply depending on your headcount and your sector. Have your arrangements reviewed by an employment lawyer.

Assessing psychosocial risks and recording them in the risk document

Article R. 4121-1 provides that the employer records and updates, in a single document, the results of the risk assessment. There is no official template for a “psychosocial risks” section, and I am careful not to invent one.

When I work with an HR manager on their risk document, I always ask the same two questions before reading anything: when was it last updated, and what triggered that update? That is where the conversation gets concrete. Risk documents that do not hold up show three signs:

  • they have not moved after a reorganisation or a change of core software;
  • the “psychosocial risks” line is identical everywhere, from the accounts department to the night shift;
  • no action is attached to it, or a permanent action of the “raise manager awareness” kind, with no date and no owner.

The ones that hold up start from the real work: they distinguish work units, name concrete factors, span of hours, difficult public, isolation, contradictory demands, and attach to each an action, an owner and a deadline. Psychosocial risk prevention is a subject in its own right.

Workplace harassment: what article L. 1152-1 says

Article L. 1152-1 of the French Labour Code (in French) defines workplace harassment. I stay with what it does: it sets a definition. It is not for me, and not for you, to say from an HR office whether a situation falls inside it. That is a legal characterisation.

Yet this is the question that comes up most often when I run a training session: “at what point does it become harassment?” I do not answer that question, because it is not mine. I answer on what does depend on the company: the reporting channel, the recording of the alert, the handling time, the written response. What I see go wrong is the alert received verbally by a manager, never formalised, which resurfaces a year later with no trace at all.

So, two reflexes: write it down, and get support. On running an investigation and on any consequences, rely on an employment lawyer and on your occupational health service; the labour inspectorate can also be involved.

Occupational physician, occupational health service, staff committee: who does what

Article L. 4624-1 and following (in French) organise individual health monitoring: the occupational physician’s role, medical visits including the return-to-work visit, and proposals for adjusting the job. The occupational physician is the only person in the company who can pronounce on anyone’s state of health.

The occupational health service is not limited to medical visits: many offer support with assessing psychosocial risks, and occupational psychologists. It is a heavily under-used resource in smaller companies, and one already paid for through the contribution.

The staff committee, finally, has a central role on health, safety and working conditions: it is consulted, it can raise alerts, it takes part in analysing situations. Its precise powers depend on headcount, to be checked with your adviser. A psychosocial risk action plan designed without the staff committee rarely holds.

Where my role stops. I am an HR professional, a trainer and a coach: not a doctor, not a psychologist, not a lawyer. I can help a company structure its prevention, train its managers and open up conversation. I make no diagnosis and I take on no individual situation. For a person in difficulty, the referral routes are the occupational physician, the treating doctor or a psychologist. The French health insurance system keeps the directory of registered psychologists under the Mon soutien psy scheme at monsoutienpsy.ameli.fr; in case of immediate danger in France, call 15, and 3114, the national suicide prevention line, is free and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On legal points: an employment lawyer, your occupational health service or the labour inspectorate.

In practice, for an HR manager or a site director: demonstrable actions

On mental health at work, the employer’s obligation comes down to one thing: what you can show. When a management team asks me to take stock, I start by asking to see documents, not by interviewing people.

  1. An up-to-date risk assessment document, with a psychosocial section differentiated by work unit, dated, with the method and the participants.
  2. An action plan tied to that assessment: each risk points to an action, an owner and a deadline. An action with no date is not an action.
  3. Evidence of information and training: who was trained, in what, and when. Frontline managers first.
  4. A written, circulated reporting channel, proof that it was circulated, and a register of alerts and their outcomes.
  5. A record of social dialogue and of exchanges with the occupational health service, including the written response to the physician’s proposals.
  6. A note on every reorganisation showing that its effects on working conditions were examined beforehand.

Two collective levers work well in the smaller companies I support. The first, mental health first aid training, equips volunteer employees to spot signs of difficulty and signpost. I repeat it at every session: a first aider signposts, and does not treat, standing in for no health professional. The second is a collective moment: a workshop for talking about mental health at work, which I run under licence. Both belong to the information and training strand of article L. 4121-1; neither replaces the work on the organisation, which is where the causes of workplace stress actually sit.

What this article does not cover

  • No case law. I cite no court decision and do not comment on how judges appraise the duty of care: that is a lawyer’s ground.
  • Individual cases. Fitness for work, challenging a medical opinion, sick leave, disciplinary proceedings: each calls for a case-by-case examination.
  • Rules specific to your sector. Public service, sector agreements, activities with particular hazards: other obligations sit on top of this base.
  • The field of care. No symptom described, no therapeutic guidance. Clinical detection of burnout belongs to doctors, who are the audience for the good practice guidance of the French national health authority (in French).
  • Costing. No cost of distress per employee, no return on investment for prevention: I quote no unsourced figure.

FAQ

Is mental health really part of the employer’s obligations?

Yes, explicitly. Article L. 4121-1 of the French Labour Code requires the employer to take the measures necessary to ensure safety and protect the physical and mental health of workers. Mental health falls under the same regime as physical risks: assessment, actions, traceability.

What should the risk assessment document contain about psychosocial risks?

Article R. 4121-1 provides that the employer records and updates in the single document the results of the risk assessment. A useful psychosocial section distinguishes work units, names concrete factors and attaches to each an action, an owner and a deadline. Have the formalisation checked by your occupational health service.

Is training managers or mental health first aiders enough?

No. Training belongs to the information and training strand of article L. 4121-1, but it replaces neither the risk assessment nor the work on the organisation covered by article L. 4121-2. Training without correcting chronic overload amounts to equipping people to face a problem they cannot solve on their own.

An employee is visibly struggling. What can I do as an HR manager?

You can voice your concern without interpreting, listen, remind them of the referral routes and make access to the occupational physician easy, who can be approached at any time. You make no diagnosis and decide nothing medical. In case of immediate danger in France, call 15; for suicide risk, 3114, free, 24 hours a day.

Will the European Parliament impose an annual psychosocial risk assessment?

Nothing has been adopted. The European Parliament is examining an initiative asking the Commission to propose a text on psychosocial risks, with a plenary sitting indicatively scheduled for 5 October 2026. It is not a directive in force: today, articles L. 4121-1, L. 4121-2 and R. 4121-1 are what apply.

Going further

If you are reopening your psychosocial risk assessment, write to me: I will look at your situation and tell you honestly what falls to me and what falls to an employment lawyer or your occupational health service. Get in touch.

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