The update of Regulatory Standard No. 1 (NR1)-which would come into force on Monday (26) and was extended in another year-obliges companies to identify and combat risks to mental health that, if neglected, may even impact on the accident factor and reflect costs on the entire payroll.
NR1’s new newsroom makes it mandatory for companies to identify and eliminate possible psychosocial risks at work, as they already do with the risks to physical health. Thus, it will be necessary to identify situations that can increase stress at work, such as excess journey, harassment, excessive charging for results, lack of mental rest, among other factors.
This update is side by side with another regulatory standard, NR4, linked to the risks of work, and the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE), which defines the degree of risk of the company, explain Fernanda Garcez, partner of ABE Advogados and responsible for the labor area, and Catharine Machado, a lawyer specializing in labor law and partner of MBW Advocacia.
Thus, if a company registers a worker removal because of mental health, this may change the company’s CNAE and increase the company’s accidental risk factor, which reflects costs throughout the payroll.
“NR1 can indirectly impact wage leaf because what defines the company’s risk degree is CNAE or economic activity. In NR4, which is another regulatory standard, has the list of CNAes and each CNAE has a corresponding degree of risk. This degree of risk is reviewed periodically and, usually, it is based on accidentality. Burnout, this can lead to an increase in accidentity, ”explains Garcez.
Extended deadline
Ordinance No. 765, of May 15, extended the term of NR1. Initially, the rules were scheduled to start to apply this May 26th. Then there was an adaptation by which the rules would come into force, but educational – and the fines would only be applied in May 2026. Now, all the validity was transferred to next year.
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Labor lawyer Priscila Soeiro Moreira, from Abe Advogados, says that the postponement was necessary for companies to have more information on how to mapping psychosocial risks. “We don’t have, for example, a step by step, a model of the action plan. Companies know they need to do, but they don’t know exactly how to do it,” he explains.
According to Moreira, the legal analysis of the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) concluded that there is no legal support to prevent assessments for 12 months, even with provision in ordinance, due to the supralegal character of health and occupational safety. She states that this led the government to extend the validity, which would guarantee a period of adequacy without assessments.
Psychosocial risk
Despite the postponement, Izabella Camargo, a mental health consultant specializing in burnout and psychological safety in the workplace, states that NR1 update is important to change culture about work.
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“Many behaviors that were acceptable before, today are no longer tolerated. We need to have a harassment literacy, it is necessary to work the leaders so that violent situations are not repeated,” he says.
According to her, the instrument for measuring psychosocial risks in companies is research, which need to be applied anonymously and individual, with a result that measures the climate of the organization and not the perceptions of each employee. From the result, the company will recognize, identify and handle the risks in each sector.
“We are living a period of cultural change. Reactions, jokes will happen. But every attempt to discuss the theme is valid. When a person gets sick at work, they are showing the disability of that environment, not themselves,” he says.
