Employee stress litigation: The UK experience

This paper considers the extent to which stress-induced illness can be regarded as a personal injury that could give rise to civil action for damages against employers in the UK. It outlines the results of a brief survey of personal injury solicitors, which indicates that claims are already being initiated by employees who allege they have suffered a stress-induced illness. The potential for claims within industrial tribunal cases that have already been decided is also examined. Consideration is given to the hurdles that litigants will have to surmount, such as proving that their condition was in fact caused by some feature of their working conditions, showing that it was foreseeable that they would suffer a stress-based injury, and demonstrating that their employer was in some way at fault. This leads to a questioning of what employers can do to protect themselves from such claims, or at least defend them successfully. The paper points out that success is likely to depend heavily upon the quality of expert medical opinion, and also upon policy conditions that may influence those adjudicating on such cases. It is concluded that the cost of losing claims may be significant, and that employees who ignore the warning signs do so at their peril.