3. The law and work-related stress

This Chapter summarises the legal duties owed by the employer in relation to work-related stress.

This legal framework is complicated and inadequate. There is no legislation in the UK specifically aimed at combating stress at work. Instead, reps need a basic understanding of a range of potential sources of legal rights. As public sector union UNISON has warned, winning a stress-related claim is not easy, and avoiding the harm caused by stress is preferable to compensating it. “It is better to use the law to negotiate improved agreements and working conditions with your employer rather than resort to risky and costly legal actions which may or may not be successful,” it says.

A TUC-backed report based on official figures and produced by Hazards magazine in 2013, Robbed – bloody bandages but no bloody compensation, showed that just one in 754 workers who suffer work-related stress, anxiety and depression receive compensation.

This tiny minority who are awarded compensation will have suffered serious psychiatric injury. Work-related stress will have had a devastating impact on their long-term capacity to continue their careers and enjoy their lives.