Stress at Work

In recent years, the issue of stress at work has become a significant problem in the United Kingdom for both employees and employers. Research from the Health and Safety Executive estimates that nearly a fifth of the UK workforce - five million people - suffer from 'high-levels' of stress at work. This suggests that a vast number of employees are being placed at risk of ill health, both physical and mental, as a result of their jobs. Further, according to the Health and Safety Commission, out of the 40 million working days lost as a result of illness and injury in 2001/02, 13 million were lost due to stress, anxiety or depression. The cost to employers of such absences runs to hundreds of millions of pounds.

Clearly, not all stress-related problems are caused by work. However, where an employee is experiencing stress at work, the employer has, in the words of the HSE, 'ethical, legal and economic' reasons for doing something about it. The ethical and economic reasons are hinted at in the first paragraph above. The legal reasons form the basis of this Supplement.

The Supplement is divided into six chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 looks at the nature of workplace stress and discusses its causes and effects. This chapter also considers ways in which employers can handle workplace stress in order to reduce its impact

Chapter 2 is concerned with key health and safety legislation that has a bearing on stress in the workplace. In particular, it looks at the general duty of employers to protect the health and safety of employees at work and at the more specific requirement on employers to conduct workplace risk assessments.

Chapter 3 focuses on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and its application in cases where employees suffer psychiatric illness as a result of stress while Chapter 4 considers the role of unfair dismissal law, particularly in respect of stress-related absences.

Chapter 5 tackles the thorny question of employers' liability for psychiatric illness, both at common law and under statute.

Chapter 6 focuses on two of the major causes of workplace stress - bullying and harassment - and considers what action employers can take to eliminate, or at least reduce, their incidence.

This Supplement was published in June 2003.