Stress-related absence from work and resulting litigation is a growing problem. Research by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has revealed that about half a million people in the UK experience work-related stress at a level they believe is making them ill. An employer’s liability for work-related stress impacts on different areas of employment legislation, but usually arises under the tort of negligence or disability discrimination legislation.
The threshold an employee must attain to prove employer liability for psychiatric injury caused by stress at work is high. But the number of cases in this area has grown. Claims often arise from an alleged breach of the employer’s duty to take reasonable care that its employees do not suffer injuries at work. To succeed, the employee needs to establish that an employer has breached this duty, and that he or she has suffered a reasonably foreseeable injury as a result. The employer will then be liable in the tort of negligence.
