Workplace stress

The Health and Safety Executive (Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety) gives a broad definition of stress as the “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them” at work and work-related stress as a reaction “to excessive demands or pressures, arising when people try to cope with tasks, responsibilities or other types of pressure connected with their job, but find difficulty, strain or worry in doing so.¹ “ Stress is a reaction to certain pressures or demands which will not normally amount to an illness itself but it can trigger illnesses such as depression and anxiety and other physical stress related problems.

Workplace stress

The Health and Safety Executive provides guidance on the causes of workplace stress, the signs of workplace stress, how employers should deal with workplace stress and how employers can tackle workplace stress. The NHS provides guidance on the symptoms and feelings of stress and where to go for support.²

What to do if you are stressed at work

If you are struggling with workplace stress you should speak to your manager. If you feel like you can’t talk to your manager about your problem, speak to someone else – this could be someone in your human resources department or a trade union representative if you have one.

Try to speak to someone as early as possible to lessen the impact the problem will have on you.

Your employer has a duty of care to consider the impact of stress in the workplace and a legal obligation to ensure your health, safety and welfare as an employee. This legal duty on your employer includes a duty to protect workers from work-related stress by doing a risk assessment (which follows the Health and Safety Executive’s “management standards” approach³) and acting on that risk assessment.

If you are pregnant, this is a time of change and many people feel some stress at various stages pregnancy. However, if your job or a particular element of your role is causing you stress during pregnancy you will want to raise this with your employer as a health and safety concern and ask for adjustments to be made. See our page on health and safety in pregnancy for more detailed information on your rights and how to request a health and safety assessment.

Your employer may have its own procedures on how to deal with issues of workplace stress. You should check your employer’s policy, if they have one.

Where your employer has failed in their duty to ensure your health, safety and welfare and your mental or physical health has suffered as a result, you may be entitled to bring a claim against your employer.

Potential Claims

If you have suffered with work-related stress and suffered an injury or have had to leave employment or been dismissed as a result, you may want to take independent legal advice to see whether you can bring any of the following claims:

Personal injury: If your health has suffered because of stress at work you may want to take advice to see whether you have a potential personal injury claim. To succeed in such a claim an employee will need to prove that their employer has breached the duty of care owed to the employee, this has caused the employee an injury and that this type of injury, as a result of the breach, was reasonably foreseeable.

You may also want to look at health and safety legislation and working hours legislation (the Working Time Regulations 1998) to see if your employer is in breach of their obligations towards you.

Unfair Dismissal: If you are signed off work (by a medical professional) with stress and then are dismissed as a result of that stress, you may have a claim for unfair dismissal.

Pregnancy Discrimination: If you are signed off with work-related stress during your pregnancy (and if this could have been avoided by making changes to your role) you may want to raise this with your employer as it may be that you should be suspended on full pay. If there are changes that could be made to your role, you should write to your employer to ask for this to happen. See our health and safety page for more information. If you are on sick leave with a pregnancy related illness and you are dismissed as a result of that illness, this would also amount to pregnancy discrimination. See our page on pregnancy and maternity discrimination for more information.

Disability Discrimination: If you suffer from anxiety and depression (resulting from work-related stress) or another stress related condition, this may mean that you have a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 and so would be protected from disability discrimination. The definition of disability for the purposes of the Equality Act is a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

Advising on personal injury and disability discrimination claims are outside of the remit of our Legal Advice Service but you should seek independent legal advice if you are considering bringing such claims and be aware that strict time limits may apply.

Next Steps

In summary, before making a claim, your options for resolving the situation include:

• Making an informal complaint by talking to or writing to your employer;
• Making a formal complaint to your employer – otherwise known as ‘raising a grievance’;
• Using mediation (where a trained mediator will try to help you and your employer reach an agreement about how best to deal with your situation)

If you feel that these options are not suitable or you are not satisfied with your employer’s handling of the situation you can seek advice on your options.

These next steps relate to resolving employment issues and potential claims, not personal injury claims (which are out of the remit of our service).

Step 1 – Informal Meeting and Discussion: We would always recommend trying to resolve a situation with an employer amicably. Our experience is that most people want to retain their employment and do not want to be in state of grievance or dispute with their employer. If you are already in dispute or have been dismissed or treated very badly then this will not always be possible.

As a first step, you may want to ask in writing to have an informal meeting to speak to your employer and to explain what has happened to try to come to a solution. You may also want to say what you would like to happen next e.g. a reduction in responsibilities or plan of action to reduce stress at work.

Step 2 – Grievance: If the discussions with your employer don’t resolve the issue, you can consider raising a grievance. You should note that raising a grievances will not extend the time limits for bringing a claim in the Employment Tribunal, and so you may want to raise a grievance alongside any ACAS conciliation if applicable (see step 4 below). You can find more information in our article on Grievances.

It is important that you raise a grievance to preserve your position in any potential claim you bring in the Employment Tribunal for two reasons:

1. the Employment Tribunal can reduce any compensation which is awarded to you by up to 25% if you do not do this in certain claims; and
2. the Tribunal can increase any compensation by up to 25% in certain claims if the employer does not deal with your grievance properly or at all.

In the grievance you will need to outline the treatment you feel has been unfair, state the potential claims that you feel you have and give your employer an opportunity to resolve your concerns. Your employer should not ignore your grievance, fail to hear it within a reasonable time or reject it out of hand (as doing so could amount to a breach of your employment contract). However, your employer is not obliged to uphold your complaint. If you are unhappy with the outcome of your grievance, you should normally be able to appeal it; the procedure will be set out in your employer’s grievance policy. If you are unhappy with the outcome of the appeal process, you can contact us for advice.

It is advisable to try and resolve things amicably (where time limits allow) as we advise in step 1 above, as formal processes can damage your relationship with your employer. For some legal insight into grievances and tips on how to engage with your employer before it reaches this point, see our article on Grievances do more harm than good.

Step 3 – Appeal: If your grievance is not upheld and you are dismissed, you can appeal the decision and dismissal. Most appeal procedures should be set out in your employer’s grievance policy. You should let your employer know the grounds of your appeal in writing as soon as possible after the decision has been made. If an employer does not give you the opportunity to appeal, this could be counted against them if the case goes to employment tribunal. If you fail to appeal a decision, this may also result in a reduction of compensation awarded if you are successful in an later Employment Tribunal claim.

Step 4 – ACAS conciliation and bringing a claim in the Employment Tribunal: If the above does not resolve the matter in time, you could consider bringing a claim in the Employment Tribunal. We recommend taking independent advice before you do this.

Most employment claims have strict time limits and must be started within 3 months less a day from the date of the action complained of.

The first step when bringing a claim in the employment tribunal is to begin early conciliation through ACAS.⁴ This must be within the three month limit. You can find more about ACAS early conciliation here. If your claim is not resolved during early conciliation then you will need to proceed to issue a claim in the Employment Tribunal, if you want to pursue the matter.

There is more information available in our Employment Tribunal section about bringing a claim in the Tribunal.

Personal injury claims would usually be brought in the civil court, not the Employment Tribunal and different procedures and time limits will apply. Citizens advice may be able to help advise in this area.

Notes

1. From HSE.gov.uk
2. From NHS.uk
3. The Management Standards approach is “an organisational, preventative process for managing the risks to your employees from work-related stress”. Essentially, it is a free-to-use toolkit that helps employers prepare and conduct appropriate risk assessments.
4. ACAS is an independent public body which provides free and impartial advice to employers, employees and their representatives on employment rights, best practice and policies, and resolving workplace conflicts.

This advice applies in England, Wales and Scotland. If you live in another part of the UK, the law may differ. If you are in Northern Ireland you can visit the Labour Relations Agency or call their helpline Workplace Information Service on 03300 555 300.

Our helpline and online contact form is now closed as we wind down our operations. Our free legal advice pages remain available and up to date until further notice. You can find a list of trusted organisations that may be able to help you below.