The issue of mental health can be a very difficult one for employers to deal with, but it is one that should not be ignored. The 2006/07 survey of self-reported, work-related illness, published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), indicated that approximately 530,000 people in Britain believed that they were experiencing work-related stress at a level that was making them ill. Research commissioned by the Shaw Trust in 2006 estimated that three in every ten employees will have a mental health problem in any one year. In addition, mental ill health is costing businesses as much as £9 billion a year in salaries, excluding the cost of lost time and productivity.
Aside from issues of productivity, employers have a duty of care to their employees, which includes a duty not to cause an employee psychiatric harm. Whilst there may be an underlying cause of an employee's mental ill health that lies outside the workplace, do not assume that this is the case and do nothing. There may be measures you could take to make things easier. If the problem is work-related then the employer has a responsibility to control and help remedy it.
Many workers in the UK work long hours and suffer stress as a result. Where an employer is guilty of a serious breach of the Working Time Regulations, as regards hours worked and rest breaks allowed, this will be taken into account when deciding if psychiatric injury was reasonably foreseeable for the purposes of a damages claim for stress. Failing to take reasonable steps to prevent an overworked employee's breakdown by refusing to respond to signs that they are struggling to cope is a breach of the duty of care owed to the employee by the employer. Bullying can cause psychiatric damage and an employer can be held vicariously liable if an employee suffers a stress-related illness as a result of being bullied by another employee and the employer is found to be in breach of its duty of care.
In spite of the disruption that mental health problems can cause in the workplace and the legal duties that reside with the employer with regard to the health and safety of employees, the 2006 research revealed that 80 per cent of the companies surveyed did not have a formal policy for dealing with stress and mental ill health at work and 70 per cent were of the view that they did not know enough about their legal position and obligations as regards mental health in the workplace.
There is useful guidance on dealing with this issue on a general level on the Health and Safety Executive's website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/. In addition, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration service has guidance on how to spot signs of depression in the workplace at http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2053 and a booklet entitled Health, Work and Wellbeing available at
http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=854&p=0.
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