Health & Safety Solutions

Stress in the Workplace

• Employers can be found negligent under a breach of common law duty of care to provide a safe system and conditions of work. This now includes psychosocial areas as well as physical hazards.
• Employers have a statutory duty to undertake risk assessment and to manage those risks as far as is reasonably practical. (Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999). Stress is now seen as a workplace derived risk.
• In recent court cases the employer has been taken to court citing the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in conjunction with the Management of H&S at Work Regulations 1999. They have been found negligent under the terms of duty of care of the employer within those two Acts.
• The costs to an organisation can be very significant. All legal costs may not be paid unless a company has additional legal insurance.
• The amount of HR time involved can be huge and very demanding as people are dragged through the courts in stressful and lengthy cases.
• The public image of the organisation can be severely tarnished
• ‘No win no fee’ agencies are actively promoting their services to act in these types of cases.
• Currently trades unions are actively supporting hundreds of cases through the courts, e.g. UNISON.
• For further details visit their website on: www.unison.org.uk 

Our consultants have extensive experience and knowledge of this sensitive area of management. We will help you develop a strategy to help protect your organisation. We will help your team to:

• Assess the current stress situation
• Identify preventive strategies
• Develop a Stress Policy
• Provide training for managers and staff
• Develop an internal stress evaluation and audit system
• Assist you with the relevant paperwork
• Help you develop a stress aware culture

If you would like to find out about any of these issues in more detail, please give us a call on +44(0)870 350 2595 or e-mail us on h&s@jamberry.co.uk