LRD guides and handbook October 2016

Stress and mental health at work - a guide for trade union reps

Chapter 3

[ch 3: page 26]

Here are the main sources of legal rights in relation to workplace stress:

• health and safety legislation (including the Working Time Regulations);

• unfair dismissal laws;

• anti-discrimination laws, especially protection from disability discrimination;

• the employment contract, especially the contractual right to work in a safe environment and the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence;

• the law of negligence (the employer’s duty to take reasonable steps to protect workers from foreseeable psychiatric injury caused by work).