Government crackdown on stress at work
November 1, 2004
A Government crackdown on stress at work is to be launched this week in response to a series of cases in which organisations have been found guilty of putting the mental health of their workers at risk.
A tough new code will set management standards for reducing stress and put employers at risk of legal action if they ignore them. The code, to be launched on Wednesday by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), will set six standards for easing the pressure and improving the quality of life in the office and on the shop floor.
The standards include reducing job demands, increasing support and giving staff more control over their work. The move follows cases in which workers have won large payouts for stress. Jacqui Beart, an executive officer at Swaleside prison on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, won £400,000 earlier this year after a clash with her manager left her depressed and unable to work.
In April, the House of Lords awarded more than £70,000 to Alan Barber, a former head of maths at East Bridgwater secondary school in Somerset, who left with a stress-related illness after being given extra duties combined with the removal of his deputies. The case established that an "autocratic and bullying style of leadership" that is "unsympathetic" to complaints of occupational stress are factors that courts can take into account in deciding cases. Employers also have a duty to act if they know an employee is at risk from stress, the judges ruled.
The HSE standards will, for the first time, provide a legal basis against which companies and public sector organisations can be assessed on their efforts to reduce stress to manageable levels.
Alan Bradshaw, director of In Equilibrium, a stress management consultancy, said: "This is the first time there has been a code. It is a landmark. Until now employees had to rely on how individual cases were settled in the courts. We have never had specific standards before and it will make it harder for companies to defend their actions if they have not complied with the standards."
More than 13 million work days a year are lost because of stress and over 500,000 people have experienced levels of stress related to their work that have made them ill, the HSE says.
Although the code is voluntary, it provides a lever for change for employees, Mr Bradshaw said. "You will see many more employees and trades unions blowing the whistle on stress. That will mean the HSE will have to act by imposing enforcement orders and improvement notices. The ball game is changing as far as stress in the workplace is concerned."
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, companies can already be technically sued for causing unnecessary stress at work. But cases are difficult to prove and no prosecutions have been brought by the Health and Safety Executive.
The executive was anxious yesterday, to play down the potential impact on employers. A spokesman said: "Enforcement is not the main way forward. We are more in the game of persuasion and encouragement." But he admitted that trade unions and individuals could use the set of standards to bring their own legal actions against employers. "As we progress with this it does raise the game, the spokesman said. "Our inspectors are becoming more and more aware of the issue of stress in the workplace."
The Independent News website has further information.
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