Stress

Overview

• There is no specific law aimed at workplace stress, but employers have duties under both common law and statute law which are relevant to workplace stress.
• Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, employers must ensure the health, safety and welfare of all their staff.
• The Health and Safety Executive has published Management Standards on work-related stress of which all employers should be aware.

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Possible claims

• An employee suffering undue work-related stress has the following possible legal remedies: a personal injury claim, a breach of contract claim and an unfair/constructive dismissal claim:
  • personal injury/negligence: employers have a duty of care to employees to, for example, provide a safe system of work and stress-related personal injury claims are often made under this heading
  • contract: there is an implied contractual obligation on an employer to operate a safe system of work and any beach of this duty could be the basis for a breach of contract claim
  • unfair/constructive dismissal: all employers have an implied contractual duty to provide a safe system and place of work and not to breach the implied term of mutual trust and confidence - a breach of this could lead to a resignation and a claim for unfair constructive dismissal (but the breach must be a sufficiently serious one)

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Guidelines

• The harm (injury to health) to the employee must be what is called ‘reasonably foreseeable’ – and this depends on what the employer knows (or ought reasonably to know) about the employee.
• An employer is usually entitled to assume that an employee can withstand the normal pressures of the job, unless it knows of some problem or vulnerability.
• An employer is generally entitled to take what it is told by an employee at face value, unless there are good reasons to think to the contrary.
• To trigger an employer’s duty to take steps, the indications of harm must be plain enough for any reasonable employer to realise that it should do something about it.
• An employer will only be in breach of its duty of care if it has failed to take steps which are ‘reasonable’ – and the size and resources of the employer are relevant considerations here, i.e. the larger the employer, the more is expected.
• Providing a confidential advice service will help discharge an employer's duty of care, but will not automatically do so.
• Although working more than the 48-hour maximum under the Working Time Regulations is relevant in a work-related stress claim, it is not enough to make an illness arising from it reasonably foreseeable.

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HSE Management Standards

• The Health and Safety Executive's definition of work-related stress is 'the process that arises where work demands of various types and combinations exceed the person’s capacity and capability to cope'.
• The ‘Management Standards’ for work-related stress are a set of 6 conditions which, if present in the workplace, reflect the optimum standard of health, wellbeing and organisational execution.
• In each of the Standards, systems should be in place to respond to any individual concerns.
• The 6 Management Standards are:

1. Demands – employees should be able to cope with the achievable demands of their job, including issues such as workload, work patterns and work environment, and work should be within an employee’s capabilities
2. Control – employees should have a say in how they do their work. Where possible, they should have control over the pace of their work, should be consulted in their work patterns, and should be encouraged in their work
3. Support – employees should receive adequate information and support, in the form of encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues
4. Relationships – employees should be able (and encouraged) to report unacceptable behaviour, such as bullying, and policies and procedures should be in place to allow managers to deal with unacceptable behaviour
5. Role – people should understand their role and responsibilities within the organisation, and it should be ensured that the different requirements placed upon an employee are compatible
6. Change – employees should be provided with timely information to enable them to understand the reasons for proposed organisational changes, they should be adequately consulted on change and aware of the probable impact of any changes to their jobs

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Resources

ACAS

• Stress at Work

Business Link

• How to Deal with Stress

HSE

• Work-Related Stress
• Management Standards for work-related stress - includes advice and guidance, a self-assessment questionnaire, case studies and good practical examples

CIPD

• Stress and Mental Health at Work
• Line Management Behaviour and Stress at Work
• Work-related Stress - What the Law Says

Worksmart (TUC)

• Stress

Other

• International Stress Management Association
• UK National Work-Stress Network
• Stress Management Society

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