The new NR-1 has arrived and promises to impact companies in Brazil: mental health, impossible goals, and harassment are now firmly in the sights of labor inspection.

Written by Viviane Alves

Published on 26/05/2026 at 13:22

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Update of the norm expands company responsibility, reinforces the PGR, and changes how the country monitors psychosocial risks at work

A labor change of great impact comes into effect this Tuesday, May 26, increasing attention on mental health in the workplace.

The update of Regulatory Standard No. 1, known as NR-1, now requires companies to include psychosocial risks in occupational risk management.

The measure was announced by the Ministry of Labor and Employment in August 2024, and reinforces the possibility of inspections, notifications, and fines.

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Change places psychosocial risks at the center of the PGR

The main change of NR-1 is to make explicit the obligation to include psychosocial risks in the Risk Management Program, the PGR.

Thus, factors related to work organization are now evaluated alongside physical, chemical, biological, and accident risks.

In practice, situations such as abusive targets, exhausting work hours, moral or sexual harassment, excessive pressure, internal conflicts, lack of autonomy, and management failures come under inspection.

According to Alexandre Furtado Scarpelli Ferreira, labor inspector and director of the Department of Occupational Safety and Health of the Labor Inspection Secretariat, the novelty was to clarify something that already existed in the norms.

According to him, inspections will focus less on equipment and more on how work is organized.

Therefore, workload, targets, work hours, command chain, internal systems, and worker autonomy gain greater relevance in inspections.

Inspections can act before illness occurs

With the update of the standard, the fiscal auditors will be able to verify if companies have identified psychosocial risks, recorded the problems, and adopted concrete measures.

According to fiscal auditor Odete Reis, the inspection will be based on the analysis of actual work.

In this process, inspectors will be able to observe the environment, interview workers, and evaluate internal documents.

During inspections, items such as work hours, target pressure, relationships between management and employees, complaint channels, internal processes, risk inventories, and action plans can be analyzed.

Even so, it will not be necessary for a worker to be on leave for the company to be held accountable.

The goal, according to experts consulted by g1, is to act before illness occurs and strengthen prevention.

Anonymous complaints, Social Security data, and fiscal intelligence actions may also be used.

Companies with many leaves due to mental disorders may be inspected even without a formal complaint.

Fines may occur, but guidance will be the initial priority

Companies may be fined if the inspection identifies failures in managing psychosocial risks.

However, the fine will not be automatic with the entry into force of the standard.

According to the Ministry of Labor, in the 90 days following the start of the validity, the inspection tends to prioritize guidance, instruction, and notification.

Even so, penalties may occur when the company does not identify risks, records problems without action, adopts insufficient measures, or fails to monitor risks.

According to Odete Reis, when management is not being done, the auditor may issue an infraction notice.

After that, the process will proceed to the fines and appeals sector.

Currently, fines vary according to the size of the company, number of employees, and severity of the infraction.

The amounts mentioned range from R$ 416 to R$ 4,160 for infractions related to worker health.

Infractions related to work safety can vary from R$ 693 to R$ 6,935.

Mental health gains more space in work relationships

Employee appears overwhelmed in office while colleagues point and make demands, representing psychological pressure and mental health risks at work. — Excessive pressure, constant demands, and harassment in the corporate environment come under scrutiny with the update of NR-1.

With the new NR-1, workers now have more support to report situations considered harmful.

Among them are excessive pressure, unattainable goals, abusive work hours, and moral harassment.

According to labor judge Mirella Cahú, the focus shifts from just the individual to considering the organization of work.

In practice, situations previously treated as individual fragility are now also evaluated as a result of business dynamics.

Experts assess that the norm strengthens the understanding that mental health is also part of occupational health and safety.

Data cited from the Ministry of Social Security show that Brazil recorded, in 2025, more than 546,000 absences due to mental disorders.

In this scenario, the expectation is that companies will start treating psychosocial risks with the same level of attention given to physical and operational risks.

After all, to what extent can goals, work hours, and constant pressure continue to be treated as just a “normal” part of the work routine?

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The new NR-1 has arrived and promises to impact companies in Brazil: mental health, impossible goals, and harassment are now firmly in the sights of labor inspection.

Update of the norm expands company responsibility, reinforces the PGR, and changes how the country monitors psychosocial risks at work

Change places psychosocial risks at the center of the PGR

Inspections can act before illness occurs

The iPod is back in full force: young people are reviving Apple’s old device to escape digital distractions and control their own soundtrack.

Fines may occur, but guidance will be the initial priority

Mental health gains more space in work relationships

With billions in loans, China is rebuilding Nigeria’s railway network from scratch, abandoning the British colonial tracks that have turned to scrap and creating a corridor of over 1,300 km to take the load off the roads of Africa’s largest economy.

China is building an artificial island in the middle of the sea, covering 20 km², to construct the largest offshore airport in the world, the Dalian Jinzhouwan. This $4.3 billion project is anchored on more than 3,000 pillars embedded in the rock beneath the ocean and is scheduled to open in 2035.

Forget petroleum-based asphalt: a Scottish company transforms 684,000 plastic bottles into one kilometer of road that is 60% more resistant and up to 10 times more durable, and the technology has already started replacing traditional asphalt in more than 30 countries.

Austrian engineers have developed an inflatable concrete technology that transforms flat slabs into domes using only air pressure, eliminating scaffolding and temporary forms, and potentially changing the way bridges, tunnels, and curved roofs are constructed worldwide.

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Spain installs two giant pipelines 2.2 km off the coast to draw water from the Mediterranean and supply a megafacility capable of producing 200 million liters of drinking water per day.

A British company has installed in the middle of the ocean the world’s first floating platform that generates electricity 24 hours a day from the temperature difference between the surface and the depths of the Atlantic, without relying on wind or sun.

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