Work Stress Claims: The Five Types

A work stress claim is increasingly common in law, particularly as UK employers and tribunal results compel us to prioritise mental well-being.

What the government says about a work stress claim

The numbers bear out that the amount of people suffering from stress at work is rising. In an annual report on Work-related stress, anxiety or depression statistics in Great Britain, 2019:

  • Over 600,000 workers suffer from work-related stress, depression or anxiety;
  • These conditions led to the loss of nearly 13 million working days;
  • New case incidence rates amount to 740 out of every 100,000 workers;
  • These conditions account for:
    • Firstly, 54% of all working days lost due to ill health.
    • Additionally, 44% of all work-related ill health cases.

How (and what type of) industries are affected

As personal injury solicitors all know, more than one set of truths can co-exist at the same time. Such is the nature of incidents of work-related stress.

  • Firstly: incidents of stress in the workplace do not discriminate by sector. In actuality, all industries are touched by stress-related illnesses – at a rate just shy of 15 out of every 1,000 UK workers.
  • Secondly: some industries are particularly affected by this. Industries like human health/social work, education and public administration/defence have seen more than 50,000 cases of work stress.

However, there are still thousands of incidents across other industries. These extend from transport & logistics to manufacturing to accredited professionals, and other lines of work in between.

Ergo, from an employee’s perspective, what does all of this mean to your well-being? In short, you can throw out what kind of work a person does when it comes to work-related stress. Because the true measure of an employee’s well-being in a work environment affects different personalities in different ways.

So what kind of actions trigger a claim for work-related stress?

In short, stress at work compensation can be driven by a variety of different triggers or activities. If you think you’ve suffered from a kind of work-related illness or injury, it’s always important to understand what the law says about it.

Below are five categories identified by HSE that can unleash symptoms of stress or even force stress compensation claims. The percentages account how commonly these categories are assigned as a reason for work stress issues.

Workload (44%)

There’s a negative stigma around reducing one’s own workload. The unfortunate reason for that is because people want to take on more as a badge of honour. On the surface, it enables trust from bosses, displays one’s capability and shows that a person is able to work under pressure.

In actuality, excessive workloads (perhaps coupled with unrealistic deadlines or unreasonable expectations or KPIs) can also exacerbate a wealth of different health issues and turn you into something less than a colleague. It diminishes your human value in the eyes of co-workers and line managers. Also, in the wrong working environment, it reduces your voice and might even create the image of a pushover.

What the experts say:

Julie Morgenstern, productivity expert and author of Never Check Email in the Morning, told Harvard Business Review:

“In the bottom of your belly is this feeling that if you can’t handle the work, there’s someone else who can; you feel dispensable.

“The natural tendency is to think, ‘I am not working hard enough, smart enough, or efficiently enough. I should be able to handle this.’ So you suffer in silence.”

Morgenstern advises workers to speak up and take ownership of their workload limitations. Turning down a request or simply pointing out what you’re up against, she says, increases your credibility.

“Bosses want their employees to speak up if there is anything that’s keeping them from performing at peak levels.”

Furthermore, this is a great way to test your line manager or a boss as to whether you might be stuck in a climate ripe for a work stress claim. If you feel as if you don’t have bosses who reflect her description, their behaviour should be noted.

For a compensation claim, it will be critical to have examples (or even complaints) on the record and documented.

Lack of support (14%)

In many ways, the lack of support catches a variety of different behaviours or examples of neglect. Poor support from management is most commonly cited by HSE, but there can be other examples, too. For example, the workplace might fail you when it comes to providing:

  • Adequate reporting mechanisms;
  • Defining your rights as a worker sufficiently;
  • Education and information regarding expectations;
  • Negligent human resources capabilities.

We encourage you to take charge of your role if you feel like management is not being supportive or informative. Give them a chance to rectify or simply clarify expectations, KPIs or gain control of the work.

As ever, be vigilant, document examples and raise issues regarding support. If management lets you down, you can better prove that when the time comes, you gave management a chance to fix the problem

Violence, threats or bullying (13%)

We’ve said before in this space that workplace bullying can’t hide behind the guise of harmless banter. Furthermore, it leaves private and public sector organisations alike exposed and vulnerable.

Focus more widely, and employers are well aware that mental well-being is on the same level as physical well-being.

  • First, both are subject to personal injury or illness matters;
  • Second, both require the same vigilance to combat;
  • Finally, both require buy-in from management down to the shop floor.

That said, some workplaces are more efficient in dealing with violence, threats and bullying than others. Regardless of how management handles it, you don’t have to take it as an employee. Bullying encompasses a wide berth of unwanted behaviours.

The feelings that bullying can engender

According to ACAS, you’ve been bullied if you’re left to feel:

  • Frightened or intimidated;
  • Put down, disrespected or degraded;
  • Uncomfortable as a result of being made fun of, and;
  • Upset, insulted or offended.

Firstly, it’s important to know that whenever bullying occurs in the workplace, you don’t have to suffer in silence. There are people you can talk to and ways to address the behaviours you’re witnessing. Additionally, you can do this either face to face or with a superior or assistant.

But as ever, it is critical that when an incident – be it a one-off or as a common occurrence – does happen, you record the incident. If you do end up filing a work stress claim, recording an incident and details such as the people present, any evidence, date(s) and time(s) can significantly strengthen the validity of your claims.

Changes at work (8%)

With regard to changes at work, there are a few different connotations. For example, a new style of management can fall under this category. So can brand new technology or work content that changes the nature of the job altogether.

HSE points out that one cause of stress at work is when employees:

are not engaged when a business is undergoing change.”

Consider mergers and acquisitions, which have become increasingly common. Accordingly, change is inherent and disruptions to the new working practices can be expected. So management owes it to employees to inform them. Done right, they should endeavour to show employees how they benefit from the change.

Use change management programmes as another example. For this, management has to include employees, because the change is affecting them directly. There is a duty of care that management needs to take with this to prevent injury at work and reduce levels of stress.

If it isn’t, the change management project will ultimately fail. After all, the main idea should be to enable valued employees to cope with a more efficient system. Otherwise, there would be no need to change in the first place.

Other (21%)

Psychiatric injury or illness can occur in several other random ways. Some examples may include:

  • Not understanding your role or responsibilities fully;
  • Inability to control the way they do their work;
  • In some industries, even Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

But even if it’s not in the list above, we would urge employers to seek out stressful scenarios and get in front of potential red flags in their line of work. As we wrote in a recent post about protecting the mental health of staff:

All employers, whether it is the NHS, a private healthcare provider or employers in other sectors, have a duty of care to protect both the physical and mental well-being of its employees. 

This responsibility is enshrined in law – The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and it’s resulting regulatory updates – and all employers have to adhere to it. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.

About the Compensation Experts and the Work Stress Claim

This post is part of our ongoing series covering the issues to understand a workplace injury or work-induced psychiatric illness. Our goal is to keep you informed on the latest issues and risks involved with workplace injury claims. From understanding legal fees for a claim to getting in front of long-term complications, The Compensation Experts can help.

Be sure to read more about this topic, including:

Four Common Workplace Hazards To Be Aware Of

No matter your place of work, there are a variety of workplace hazards that you should be aware of. With these in mind, you should be able to work comfortably knowing what workplace hazards to look out for.

What is a hazard in the workplace?

A workplace hazard is any physical or mental obstacle, tool, or vehicle that can cause danger or personal injury to an employee in the workplace. There are numerous types of workplace hazards, too many to list here, but being aware of the concept and the most common types will go a long way to avoiding workplace accidents.

Common workplace hazards can put you at risk, and take you away from the job.

Common workplace hazards

Regardless of your place of work, there will always be onsite workplace hazards that you should be aware of. While your employer must minimise the risk of workplace hazards, you should always be aware of their potential.

Some workplace hazards may be physical dangers that crop up in your workplace environment, others might be physical injuries you could suffer as a result of poor work posture and habits.

A few examples of common workplace hazards could include:

  • Loose objects in the work environments
  • Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) from bad typing posture
  • Bags poking out from under desks

Of course, there are far more serious workplace hazards that you should be aware of too. So, to avoid potential hazards in the workplace, it’s always a good idea to carry out a risk assessment of your work area when possible.

Below are four risk assessment boxes you can tick to help reduce workplace risk, increase health and safety, and prevent unnecessary injuries in the workplace.

1. Physical Hazards in the work environment

Even in an office environment, it’s really important to look out for potential physical hazards in the workplace that might cause injury. But in busy spaces, it’s even more important.

With warehouse work, for example, forklifts, equipment on the go, blocked entrances, and obstructed pathways all create various workplace hazards that can pose a risk to you.

How to prevent physical hazards at work

Here are a few other potential physical hazards in the workplace, and things you should bear in mind to lessen their risks:

  • Overloading the top of your cages/containers creates unnecessary risks. Such oversights can set off sprinklers or restrict access through low-hanging doorways.
  • Cords and wires require frequent review and risk assessment. Loose cords can slow down your environment and you should always replace frayed cords, which can create an unnecessary health and safety nightmare.
  • If possible, commit to reducing the number of confined spaces you need to operate in to avoid clutter.
  • Ensure you have a record of any safety equipment’s expiration dates and carry out regular reviews to ensure they’re up to scratch.

2. Harassment, bullying and psychosocial hazards

This is perhaps one of the most overlooked workplace hazards, but linking mental well-being and physical well-being is an important piece of assessing hazardous workplace conditions.

Nowadays, we’re far more aware of the effects of harassment, sexual misconduct, and bullying in the workplace. If an action can alter an employee’s mental well-being, that action needs to be addressed as a damaging hazard.

How to prevent psychological workplace hazards

Here are a few common psychological workplace hazards to be aware of, and potential solutions:

  • Develop thorough, comprehensive policies to deal with each kind of psychosocial hazard.
  • Make certain the process to report a violation and maintain compliance does not create new levels of workplace hostility.
  • Take precautions to ensure unreasonable workloads aren’t being assigned to single individuals.
  • Ensure there is buy-in to handling psychosocial hazards from the top of the workplace organisation down. As a result, on-site buy-in from teams will be more likely to happen.
  • Above all, you should treat any psychosocial and on-site mental hazards like physical hazards. Both can lead to punitive and reputational damage to your worksite.

3. Ergonomics hazards and falls from heights

Trips, slips, and falls are some of the most widely encompassing safety hazards. Moreover, it’s a highly relevant one in the UK. Between 2018 and 2019, the HSE reported some harrowing figures regarding ergonomic hazards, including:

  • In 2017/18, over 110,000 non-fatal workplace injuries were due to handling, lifting, or carrying heavy objects.
  • Falling from height caused 40 workplace deaths.
  • Moving vehicles such as forklifts caused 30 fatalities.
  • Coming into contact with dangerous machinery resulted in 14 deaths.

How to prevent ergonomic hazards at work

To ensure that these potential hazards in the workplace can be avoided, the following are a few things to bear in mind:

  • Educate your workers in safer working practices and aim to keep it simple. Inform your workers, but don’t overload them with information.
  • Find safer, perhaps even more practical, scenarios that remove unnecessary work at height scenarios, such as poles for window washing.
  • Workers should have a say in addressing manual handling practices that:
    • Reduce strain
    • Increase regard for safety, and
    • Minimise burdensome workloads

4. Chemical Hazards

Out of all the common hazards in the workplace, chemicals injuries are the most dangerous. They can also be incredibly hard to spot in some scenarios. Chemical hazards are defined as any “hazardous substance that can cause harm to your employees.”

Symptoms of chemical hazards can include skin irritation, occupational asthma, dizziness, and headaches. But that’s just the beginning. Therefore, you should err on the side of caution by having as few chemicals on-site as possible.

Too often, the risk of chemical hazards increases simply because they go for a long stretch of time without being used. Thus, an atmosphere of ignorance and underappreciation can set in.

How to prevent chemical hazard accidents

To help mitigate the risks associated with on-site chemicals, you can do some of the following:

  • Strive to have as few chemicals on-site as possible – it makes life safer, reduces removal expense, and minimises the risk of breaking the law.
  • Create and maintain a thorough inventory of the on-site chemicals needed for your warehouse, especially regarding expiration dates.
  • Along similar lines, ensure you order only what you need. Chemicals that fall out of date aren’t easy to get rid of, and an overabundance of them can lead to fines and penalties.

There are, of course, many more common hazards in the workplace that you should keep an eye out for no matter your place of work. When you sit down to write your risk assessment, take time to think about every common workplace hazard you could include.

And if you have suffered an accident at work due to common hazards in the workplace, you may very well be entitled to compensation. Get in touch with the team at The Compensation Experts today to see what your claim might be worth.

About the Compensation Experts and Common Workplace Hazards

This post is part of our ongoing series covering the issues to understand a workplace injury or work-induced psychiatric illness. Our goal is to keep you informed on the latest issues and risks involved with workplace injury claims.

Be sure to read more about this topic, including:

UK Government indemnifies personal injury for ventilator manufacturers

In the difficult days of the current Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for more ventilators rises at a rapid rate. A recent article from the Financial Times discusses the implications and process (PAID LINK) of acquiring these machines. Additionally, it addresses how the Government will protect and support manufacturing ventilators.

Personal Injury for Ventilator Manufacturers

Estimates say the National Health Service (NHS) needs an additional 8,000 ventilators due to the potentially fatal nature of the virus. BAE Systems, Dyson and Rolls-Royce are all working on a solution. Their manufacturing actions range from building entirely new models to simple increases in production levels.

As a result, the demand should be comfortably met with the protective contingencies that are in place. There’s another troubling practice going on, however, that may complicate at-risk patients. Reports show the UK Government aims to protect these manufacturers from any financial burden due to:

  • IP: Intellectual Property infringements, and/or;
  • PI: Personal Injury caused by defective machinery.

This plan will cover the risk for any potential legal claims arising from any new machinery or IP infringement claims.

Michael Gove wrote to the Chairs of the Public Accounts and the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committees on 3 April. It was an effort that proposed shielding manufacturers (particularly designers and contract manufacturers) on ‘two “contingent liabilities’’ mentioned – IP and PI.

IP Rights and Product Liability

The extent of protection is not currently clear due to the Cabinet Office not providing comment on compensation. But as Michael Gove wrote, there now two contingent liabilities. The first to cover IP rights and the second for product liability.

This plan intends to ensure that new manufacturers don’t fear the repercussions of legal claims. In short, it’s possible manufacturers fear these risks due to the nature of the rapid production of highly complex equipment. Legal experts think IP rights holders in the life sciences and medical devices sector will object.

Because of the sensitive nature of the treatment, there is cause for concern. Additionally, the new machinery must be subject to high regulatory standards. Therefore, there is a lot of scrutiny and careful judgement surrounding the proper manufacturing of these essential devices.

For individuals suffering from a personal injury at the hands of someone else, this is a very sensitive matter. There should be no exceptions when it comes to the health and safety of patients. In short, manufacturers don’t deserve protection if they err in manufacturing their products. This holds even though we are going through a pandemic as devastating as Covid-19.

Families are losing loved ones from the virus alone. To avoid compounding the frustration, families should expect nothing less than high standard ventilators. The general public is right to worry about the virus. They don’t want to also worry about essential devices meant to help treat the virus.

The Government says it wants to protect manufacturers from legal action if they are to produce faulty machinery. However, it gives the companies an unnecessary margin of error. Though manufacturers are fighting to create ventilators at a rapid pace, that margin shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Can you still claim?

Yes: you can still make compensation claims if you suffer from medical negligence or a personal injury for ventilator manufacturers negligence. The funds are there to protect the companies but most importantly you. Without these contingencies in place, the demand for ventilators may not be met.

Remember: you still have the right to claim compensation regardless of what the Government is doing to support the companies.

Here at The Compensation Experts, we offer you free and friendly expert advice on your potential claim. We’ll ask you some questions to determine if you have a strong case for compensation. Moreover, we’ll answer any questions or queries you may have.

All our cases feature a no-win, no fee basis. For more information, browse The Compensation Experts website or call us free on 01614138765.

Call us today to start your claim for the compensation you deserve. Or, you can ask us any questions or queries you may have under no obligation.