Workplace Stress in the Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal has handed down their judgement in Dickins v O2 Plc; the trial judge in the previous case had ruled that O2 were liable for the stress induced personal injury suffered by its employee and as such they appealed to the Court of Appeal.

02 lost the appeal and the court read quite a wide interpretation of the existing authority set out in Hatton v Sutherland and as such this implies that it is likely to be now easier for claimants to satisfy the tests of reasonable foreseeability, breach, and causation than what Hatton v Sutherland had previously led us the believe.

In relation to reasonable foreseeability it was sufficient that the employee had previously complained about stress at work and had been displaying physical signs of stress. Not only this but the employee concerned had been arriving late for work and complaining that she did not know how long she could keep going before she became ill;

In relation to Breach of Duty, the court held that 02 ought to have sent its employee home pending urgent investigation by occupational health, even though she had not been signed off work by her GP. They went on further to hold that the mere suggestion of confidential counselling was not enough and or an adequate response to a situation where an employee was complaining of severe stress;

In relation to Causation the court drew the inference that there was a severe causal connection between the breach of the employers duty and the illness/injury suffered by the employee and went on to find that 02's failure to address her problems had materially contributed to her illness.

What is quite controversial is that contrary to the judgement set out in Hatton v Sutherland, the Court of Appeal held that there should be no percentage reduction in damages for the contribution to her illness made by factors outside of the employers control. This smacks of other areas of the law whereby a tort feasor has to take their victim as they are.

This case underlies the need to get advice when working in pressurised environments and particularly if an employee complains of overwork or being under undue pressure.

What is further of note is that attention must be taken even if the factors causing stress are outside of the workplace or control of the employer.

Advice can be sought by experts at my firm on 0870 756 2929 or gda@hrlegalpartners.