WORK RELATED STRESS CLAIMS STRESS AT WORK COMPENSATION
According to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, employers must provide a healthy environment for you to operate in. They are required to adequately assess the risks associated with work related stress and act appropriately to minimise it. To decrease employees’ stress at work, an employer might devolve extensive responsibilities, for example, or ensure that highly stressful work is undertaken by a variety of people instead of just one individual. They might ensure exposure to stressful work practice is confined to short periods, or they may install mechanisms to listen to employees’ grievances or provide means for employees to relax.
What exactly is work related stress? We all at some points in our lives face stress at work. The body is geared to deal with the sense of threat to our wellbeing by releasing adrenaline and making us ready for action, fight or flight. Prolonged exposure to pressure can cause a detrimental effect on health. The workplace has increasingly become individuals’ key sources of stress. Tight deadlines, harsh workloads, demanding pace of work and increased expectations on employees across all sorts of industries has meant that stress at work is a phenomenon common to many workers in the United Kingdom.
Some people are keen to point out that pressure helps performance. They say a healthy dose of pressure motivates the body and mind and prevents complacency in the workplace from slowing down productivity and effort. Yet there is an important difference between the occasional incidence of pressure which acts as a motivating tool, and chronic, detrimental pressure which ends up de-motivating employees. Of course an employer wants you to perform well, but he or she should — and indeed is legally obliged to — assess the emotional pressure their employees face and take action appropriately.
What are the dangers? This problem contributes to psychological conditions including depression and anxiety. It affects family, who often bear the brunt of the problem of an unhappy individual, and can cause social problems such as divorce and arguments with spouses and children. Perhaps the most dangerous psychological effect of stress at work is nervous breakdown, when an individual feels unable to cope, and this often results in doctors signing workers off work for long periods. Physically it can contribute to high blood pressure and has been linked to heart disease. Work related stress also contributes indirectly to alcoholism and nicotine addiction, which have clear detrimental effects on individuals’ health.
If you believe your illness is due to work, and that your employer failed to provide a work environment for you that was conducive to good health, then contact us and we can offer legal advice on whether you could claim damages.
The UK Occupational Illness Solicitors Network operates nationwide and will deal with a claim using the no win no fee scheme. Compensation is always paid in full with absolutely no deductions and there is no need to finance your claim. If the case is lost you still pay nothing. If after talking to us you decide not to take matters further then you are under no obligation to do so and you will not be charged for our advice.
