3. THE LAW AND WORK-RELATED STRESS

This Chapter summarises the legal duties owed by the employer to manage and where possible eliminate work-related stress.

There are no separate regulations in the UK aimed at controlling stress at work. However, employers have legal duties under both statutory and common law that are relevant to tackling the problem.

Statutory duties are those contained in Acts of Parliament, such as the Health andSafety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA), and the regulations made under it, as well as equality law, in particular laws prohibiting disability discrimination, now found in the Equality Act 2010.

The law of constructive unfair dismissal is also relevant. An employee whose employer fundamentally breaks (or in legal terms “repudiates”) the contract of employment is entitled to resign and claim unfair dismissal in an employment tribunal (ET), although a claim for constructive dismissal should only ever be considered as a last resort.

This Chapter also looks briefly at the law governing unfair dismissal, exploring the circumstances in which a dismissal of an employee who is on long-term sickness absence due to work-related stress is likely to be judged unfair. Further and more detailed information can be found in LRD’s annual employment law guide Law at work (www.lrdpublications.org.uk/publications.php?pub=BK&iss=1664).

In contrast to the laws governing unfair dismissal and discrimination, common law duties are based on principles that have been developed through decisions of the civil courts. The basis for these decisions is the common law of negligence. The law provides a remedy where the employer’s breach of the duty of care owed to employees results in personal (psychiatric) injury.

A few workers have successfully used this framework to claim compensation for psychiatric injury resulting from stress at work. The most important of these decisions are looked at in this Chapter with some practical pointers from the findings in each case.

It must be emphasised that success in these kinds of cases is rare. A TUC-backed report based on official figures and produced by Hazards magazine showed that the proportion of workers receiving compensation due to work-related stress, anxiety and depression, is just one in 754. In addition, the government has recently changed the law on “strict liability” making it more difficult for workers to win personal injury claims (see box, page 24).

Those civil law cases that have been successful have tended to be brought by individuals who suffered serious psychiatric harm, and where work-related stress had a devastating impact on their long-term capacity to continue in their careers and to enjoy their lives.