Legislation update: Stress at work – ignore at your peril

Posted by Richard White in Employment law on Tue, 26/05/2009 - 12:50
  • The presence of specialist support services will not stop an employer being held liable for stress at work
  • No job is inherently more likely to cause stress than any other job
  • Employers must consider how to deploy specialist support services
  • Respond quickly to employees who indicate that they are feeling stressed

The leading case in the area of stress at work is Hatton v Sutherland in which the Court of Appeal set out guidelines on an employer's obligations in relation to workplace stress. The recent case of Connor v Surrey County Council highlighted that the presence of specialist support services was not sufficient for an employer to avoid liability for stress at work. An employer must actively consider how to deploy its support services when faced with an employee at risk of psychiatric injury.

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Editor's Welcome

 

Hello! And welcome back as we enter 2012, with a busy year ahead of us all. With talk of double-dip recessions, a possible partial or even full break-up of the Eurozone and unemployment rates set to hit nearly 9%, topics such as organisational streamlining, staff resilience and talent management are likely to be on many an HR professional's lips over the next 12 months.
 
But to lighten the gloom here in the UK, we also have the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and its attendant public holidays to look forward to at the start of June. Followed by two weeks of Olympic Games from 27 July to 12 August and the Paralympics from 29 August to 9 September, each generating their own excitement, but also issues to work through for hard-pressed HR departments trying to sort out the multifarious staffing issues in advance.
 
So with an interesting but challenging year to come, HRZone promises to be with you, supporting you all the way and providing our usual insightful blend of news, analysis, community blogs and expert comment to help you sort the wheat from the chaff. As ever, we love to hear from you too so feel free to either post your words of wisdom to our blog section yourself or, in the case of longer, more in-depth ‘expert voice’ articles, drop me a line with any ideas to cath.everett@siftmedia.co.uk.....
 
Cath Everett
HRZone Editor 
 
 
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