“Institutions are finally realising the importance of mental health, but at the same time it is being approached from the perspective of repair, which is crucial, but not prevention. We cannot forget about prevention, this perspective was not being duly analysed, but the unions, with the prevention delegates and with that overdose of reality, have been pending on this issue for many years”, highlights Adrián Todolí.

The University professor added that “if these strategies take into account inputs from prevention services, the strategy will have a much better chance of achieving objectives. Because to reduce mental health problems we believe that prevention is essential and not repair. Obviously, when it has already happened, you have to provide that person with the means, but if we avoid problems from the beginning, it is much better”, he added.

In addition, Todolí remarks that “if other countries have stumbled on that stone, we can learn from them. Spain is the second country, after France, that approved the right to digital disconnection in 2018, but it seems that it was left in a drawer. There is the right, but it is not being guaranteed”, he stated.

For her part, the Deputy Secretary General and of Occupational Health, Environment and Cooperation of UGT-PV, Marisa Baena, said that “it is a report that is very well prepared because it collects very recent jurisprudence and emphasises the collective bargaining clauses. The study proposes red lines that should not be crossed from a legal point of view”.

The rector of the UV, Mavi Mestre, was present at the opening of the event and pointed out the importance of the study because teleworking has gone from being something exotic to a reality after the pandemic at the same time that mental health now occupies the public space. Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance and Economic Model, Arcadi España, added that there are people who cannot choose the job and must think about them and their working conditions.

Finally, the event ended with a round table, “Mental health, a challenge in the face of new technologies”, in which Antoni Tatay, Labour and Social Security inspector; Ángela Martín-Pozuelo, assistant lecturer of the Department of Labour Law and Social Security of the UV; and Ana Belén Muñoz, full-time professor of Labour Law and Social Security at the Carlos III Madrid University and deputy director of the Master’s Degree in Occupational Risk Prevention.