FOAK: Stress

The husband of a friend is having a problem at work. His boss has been off
for a month or so, and his employers have had him covering both jobs. He
hasn't been able to cope, and has been bottling everything up, misleading
customers etc. Sometime last week, he had a little bit of a breakdown.
He's now signed off for a couple of weeks, and has been prescribed sleeping
pills.

He could cope again if he was back doing his original job, but the company
seems to be short of management at his boss's level. It has recently been
taken over by an American outfit. His salary is slightly better than what
he'd get working in a shop, but not by much.

Presumably he's okay signed off sick for a few more weeks, but what are his
rights here? Is this something that would be classed as an industrial
injury? Are the new owners likely to aggressively look to get rid of him?
My view, btw, is that he should be looking for a better job, but he should
actually be returned to work before applying for anything.

 

I'm not sure, but I've ended up doing two jobs and get paid for one, so I
don't think it's uncommon.

<shrug>

It's only work

</shrug>

 

I managed to do one job and get paid for two. Only for two weeks,
mind, but it was nice all the same.

 

I expect his wife will need some /sympathy/ as well.

 

You don't say what he has been offically signed off with, but assuing
"work related stress" or some such...

I'm certainly not an expert in this, but have some very limited
experience.

<caveats over>

If the cause of the stress / sickness was due to his working
environment, and when he returns the company have done nothing to
remedy the situation, and expect him to continue, they are not taking
due care. If he then suffers more harm, then this could have been
reasonably forseen. He might try leaving and claiming "consructive
dismissal", but he should take professional advice first.

I also believe he needs to inform his company of this issue, since he
has a duty of self care.


This is all probably completely wrong though!

 

SNIP!

Walker v Northumberland County Council (1995) - the High Court ordered
Northumberland County Council to pay damages to an ex-employee. The Court
held that as employers they had a duty not to cause their employee
psychiatric damage by giving him too much work and/or insufficient back up
support. The general principle is that an employer is usually entitled to
assume that the employee can withstand the pressures of the job. However, if
it is reasonably foreseeable that there is a risk of injury (which must be a
clinically recognisable condition) due to stress at work then the employer
owes the employee a positive duty to make the working environment less
stressful.

The important issue is that the employer needs to have been made aware of
the potential damage. He should make it clear that his current problems are
due to excessive workload and that it is causing him damage (his current
medical problems). Citing Walker v Northumberland County Council (1995) may
help focus his employers minds on finding a constructive solution to the
problem.

Tony

 

platypus says...

Paging Nidge

 

When I was signed off work with depression and stress my company actually
provided me with a therapist of sorts (she was actually very good). The
company paid for this and accepted the illness with no problems. They also
paid sick pay by way of full normal salary. I was never penalised for it by
the company, but my boss did his best to ensure my life was hell. I would
suggest that your friend looks for a new job at the level he's happy with
and get out of his current job even if it means never going back. FWIW my
personal life improved no end as soon as I was out of that job and I've been
off the anti-depressants for a couple of months now. Quality of life, imho,
is the most important thing.

Sick pay varies from company to company. Larger companies tend to be more
generous than smaller companies as SSP (claimed back from the IR) is very
basic and only lasts for a short time, (I'm on the wrong computer to check
just now but I do believe the max it lasts for 6 weeks from the IR, I could
be wrong here as I can't check just now, but have a look at the inland rev
website). So he should be ok for a few weeks. If he can prove it was purely
work induced then he may have a claim against the company.

hth