From 19 to 24 October 2026, the Societal Impact of Pain (SIP) Platform joins the European Week for Safety and Health at Work, the annual awareness initiative led by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).
This year’s campaign focuses on preventing psychosocial risks, marking the first year of EU-OSHA’s 2026–2028 Healthy Workplaces Campaign, “Together for Mental Health at Work”.
The campaign highlights the importance of preventing and managing psychosocial risks and creating healthier, safer, and more inclusive workplaces. For people living with chronic pain, supportive working environments are particularly important. Pain can affect people’s ability to remain in employment and it can contribute to absenteeism, presenteeism, and early retirement, with consequences for individuals, workplaces, and European economies.
In its recently published Joint Statement on Employment and the Economic Considerations of Pain, SIP and eight European professional and patient organisations call for stronger action to support people living with chronic pain in the workplace. Among its recommendations, the joint statement calls for inclusive employment policies, workplace-based interventions that support job retention and return to work, and stronger prevention of chronic pain within occupational health and safety policies.
By supporting the European Week for Safety and Health at Work, SIP reinforces its call for workplaces that protect both physical and mental health and enable people affected by chronic pain to participate in working life.
Learn more about the EU-OSHA campaign here.
Read the SIP Joint Statement on Employment and the Economic Considerations of Pain here.