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Workplace Stress: THE LEGAL ESSENTIALS -
The summaries of cases on these pages illustrate developments in the Law of Workplace Stress 1999 to 2007.
Foreseeability: Working Conditions
Foreseeability: Reasonable Steps
Foreseeability: Evidence: Notice of Psychiatric Injury
Foreseeability: Contributory Negligence
Foreseeability: Excessive Workload
Foreseeability: Arrangements for Return to Work
Victim classification: Employee Witnessing Colleague’s Death
Victim classification: Post-
Constructive dismissal: Implied Term to take Reasonable Care for Health and Safety of Employees
Constructive Dismissal: Medical Evidence
Unfair Dismissal: Cause of Illness
Unfair Dismissal: Employment Tribunal: Compensation for Personal Injury
Unfair dismissal: Common Law Remedy
Disability Discrimination: Anxiety Disorder: Medical Evidence
Disability Discrimination: Disability: Medical Diagnosis
Disability Discrimination: Disability: Evidence of Mental Impairment
Damages: Causation: Exacerbation of Pre-
Damages: Quantum: Bullying at Work
Post-
Damages: Quantum: Anxiety Resulting from Minor Physical Injury
Post-
Service Personnel: Safe System of Work
Employment Tribunal Procedure: Postponement of Hearing: Medical Evidence
Foreseeability: Race Discrimination
Breach of Contract: Unfair Dismissal
Knowledge of Employer: Special Educational Needs School Teacher
Foreseeability: Stress Reduction Policy
Vicarious Liability: Breach of Statutory Duty: Harassment
Psychiatric Injury: Harassment: Foreseeability
Stress: Duty of Care Owed: Foreseeability
Stress: Duty of Care Owed: Workload
Stress: Foreseeability: Vicarious Liability
Psychiatric Injury: Foreseeability: Duty of Care
Post-
Post-
Stress:duty of Care Owed: Workload
Psychiatric Injury: Foreseeability: Duty of Care
Post-
Disability Discrimination Update
April 2008
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Case Examples -
Sex Discrimination Disability Discrimination Workplace Stress Harassment & Bullying Employment Tribunals
Publications -
Employment Tribunal Procedure: Postponement of Hearing: Medical Evidence
Andreou v Lord Chancellor’s Department [2003] IRLR 728, CA
Mrs A, a Crown Court usher, complained to an employment tribunal of race discrimination. She applied in writing to the tribunal asking for a postponement of the hearing and enclosing a certificate from her GP which stated that she was suffering from anxiety and stress and should not work for 13 weeks. The tribunal refused the application.
At the hearing, the application was renewed. The tribunal adjourned the hearing and ordered Mrs A to provide more detailed medical evidence. She sent another report from her GP which was essentially the same as the first report but which also stated that she was being referred to a consultant psychiatrist. The tribunal struck out her claim.
Mrs A appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal which allowed the appeal on the basis that the tribunal had acted unreasonably in failing to take the new medical evidence into account. The employers appealed to the Court of Appeal which decided the following:
• The appeal should be allowed.
• The fact that a person is certified on medical grounds as not fit to attend work does not automatically mean that that person is not fit to attend a tribunal hearing.
• Stress and anxiety are generic terms covering a range of symptoms which differ widely in their severity.
Where a party seeks an adjournment on the basis of stress or anxiety, he should expect to produce details of the symptoms, their causes and severity, or to explain why those details cannot be supplied to the tribunal.