Can I sue my employer for stress and anxiety?

Work-related stress and anxiety are caused, or made significantly worse, by a person’s work or working environment. The conditions are typically attributed to several factors, including time-related pressures, workload, general unhappiness, bullying and harassment.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of employees suffer from work-related stress, anxiety, and depression. For employers, the result can be a significant dip in workforce productivity. However, for employees it can lead to long-term mental and physical harm and distress.

Employers have a duty of care to employees

All employers have a duty of care to their employees’ safety and wellbeing at work. This includes illness, injury, and mental health.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE):

It is an employer’s duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees and other people who might be affected by their business. Employers must do whatever is reasonably practicable to achieve this.

Employers should consider common causes of stress and proactively try to ensure these are reduced or eliminated.

The welfare of employees can also be protected by:

providing appropriate health and safety measures and training,
training managers to identify signs of stress and respond appropriately,
protecting employees from discrimination, harassment or bullying,
managing misconduct and grievances effectively and fairly.

Is it possible to bring a case for workplace stress and anxiety?

If you believe an employer has failed to provide adequate protection for you, it may be possible to sue them.

It will come down to individual circumstances: what has caused the stress and anxiety, how it has been dealt with, and what your current relationship with the company is (i.e. whether you still work there) may affect the type of claim you can bring.

For example, it may be possible to claim for:

breach of contract or negligence
discrimination
constructive dismissal (if you felt you had no option other than to leave your employment.)

Whatever the circumstances, you should seek advice from a professional to identify what sort of legal claim you may have, as well as your chances of success.

Proving a claim for stress and anxiety

Before you can successfully claim, there will be several factors to address. Among these are the following questions:

Did you raise the issue with your employer in accordance with any internal policy or procedure?
How did your employer respond when the issue was raised?
Did they take all reasonable measures possible?
If the stress and anxiety was the result of bullying, did the employer take any investigative or disciplinary action in respect of the offender?
If anxiety was being caused by the way you work, did your employer carry out a risk assessment or make any adjustments to your working practices?

You will also need to provide some form of medical evidence to demonstrate that you suffered stress or anxiety.

You must be able to show that:

your condition was caused or made worse by your work,
it was foreseeable that you would suffer stress and anxiety
your employer could have taken reasonable steps to prevent it.

It will help if you have a record of events, including when you started feeling unwell and what the triggers were.

Getting professional help with a claim

Work-related stress and anxiety are serious issues with debilitating and potentially damaging mental and physical consequences. However, making a claim may not be straightforward.

For some types of cases, there may be a finite window of time within which you can bring a claim. Therefore, it is important to seek professional advice as soon as you can.

At Springhouse, our experienced employment law solicitors can help you understand the legal implications of a claim, and then guide you through the process of building a case against the employer.

Our knowledgeable team handles cases that encompass a range of contributing issues, including bullying and harassment, discriminatory practices and breaches of contract.

Get in touch today for an initial consultation.

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