Stress
According to the H.S.E. work related stress affects as many as one in five employees and is thought to be responsible for 6.5 million sick days each year.
Stress is not an illness in itself but prolonged or intense stress can lead to ill-health. If an employee can show that ill-health resulted from work related stress and that this outcome should have been reasonably foreseeable by the employer then a compensation award is likely to follow.
Obviously employers should take steps to avoid staff becoming unnecessarily stressed by eliminating possible sources e.g.
· Overwork
· Lack of coping skills
· Bullying and/or harassment by colleagues
· Unnecessary pressures by managers or supervisors
· Lack of management support
As well as carrying out appropriate risk assessments there should be policies and procedures in place to deal with such matters as communicating with staff, creating the right work environment, staff grievances and appropriate training programmes.
More information is available from H.S.E. Books – Tackling work-relating stress.
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