LHC Factsheet - Stress at work

London Hazards Centre Factsheet
Stress at work

Workers in the UK don't need to be told that work has got harder and become a pressure cooker for stress over recent years. Longer hours of work, low hourly rates of pay, under-staffing, bullying and job insecurity currently have some effect on most people's health. People at the lower end of the job hierarchy are, as ever, disproportionately affected. Insurers and solicitors are regularly holding seminars for employers on how to sack stressed workers before they become a financial burden or take out compensation claims. In this vicious climate Safety Representatives and trade unions must develop strategies to tackle this issue as members' health, jobs and careers are on the line. Stress is a health and safety issue not least because there is relevant legislation and case law, but it also involves broader employment, representational and collective bargaining issues.

Causes and Symptoms

Occupational stress arises when workers perceive that they cannot adequately cope with the demands made on them or with threats to their jobs and the circumstances in which they are carried out. The main factors which cause stress at work are lack of job security (threat of redundancy, short-term contracts, etc.), excessive workload (arising from inadequate staffing, long hours, unsatisfactory shift patterns), harsh supervision and discipline, lack of control over work organisation, and inadequate training and career prospects.

Stress can result in both health and behavioural problems. It can lead to stomach and heart disease and a variety of psychological illnesses. It is related to increased accident rates, relationship problems, absenteeism and drug and alcohol abuse. The most extreme effect of stress is sudden death, i.e. people work themselves death. Many symptoms are transient and disappear when the source of stress is removed. But if stress is prolonged it can take longer to recover and permanent illness may result.

Legal Requirements

Employers have a duty to safeguard the health and safety of employees under Section 2 of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act. Under Regulation 3 of the 1992 Management of Health and Safety at Work (MHSW) Regulations, employers are obliged to carry out an assessment of the risks in jobs and reduce these as far as possible. These legal duties apply to occupational stress so risk assessments must be done.

Safety representatives operate under the 1978 Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations which entitle them to, amongst other things, inspect the workplace, talk to fellow employees regarding health and safety issues, request a Safety Committee is set up and for it to meet regularly (see Daily Hazard No. 42).

The new Health and Safety (Consultation With Employees) Regulations 1996 require employers to consult with workers where there isn't a recognised trade union on health and safety issues. They also allow for the appointment of Representatives of Employee Safety, a weaker version of the Safety Rep.

Case law on stress is contained in Walker v. Northumberland County Council. John Walker was a social worker who suffered two breakdowns related to his work. The employer took no action to modify his employment conditions upon his return to work after the first breakdown. The Court ruled that all the conditions of employer liability were present - breach of the duty of care, injury, causation and foreseeability. The employer appealed but eventually an out of court settlement of £175,000 in compensation was reached. In another out of court settlement, a social worker in Scotland received £66,000 after she was forced to retire through ill health caused by bullying by her superior. A supervisor employed by the Royal Ordnance who suffered post- traumatic stress illness after exposure to toxic fumes was awarded £125,000 in an out of court settlement.

Education and Awareness

Workers do not need to be told that their jobs are stressful but may need to be persuaded that their health is at risk or that Safety Representative or union action can improve their conditions. Education is a two-way process, ensuring that workers are aware of the issues and what the union is doing about them, enabling representatives to find out what is happening in the workplace and to propose ways of tackling the problems. This can be done by:
circulating leaflets, feature articles and posters on the hazards of stress
carrying reports in local and national bulletins of union action to combat stress
holding discussions at workplace or union meetings, perhaps with an invited speaker
investigating key indicators of stress such as sickness absence figures
conducting a survey of the incidence of stress among workers. Confidentiality must be guaranteed in a survey and the results must be published. The survey should be one part of a broader plan of action whereby the union takes up the issue with the management. There is a sample questionnaire in the Centre's book Hard Labour (see below).

Representing Individual Workers

The first priority is to protect the member's health and job where these are threatened by stress or by management responses. The second is to try and secure the solution the member wants. This could entail:
ensuring behavioural problems are not treated as a disciplinary issue
negotiating leave, a transfer or reallocation of work
obtaining a second medical opinion if required
resisting retirement on medical grounds or dismissal on grounds of inability to work
helping the member get the right sort of professional assistance
pressing the management to remove or reduce the causes of stress.

Collective Agreements

These can be of two types, an overall agreement aimed at eliminating or reducing stress or specific agreements on particular employment conditions. A general agreement would:
recognise that stress is a health and safety issue and that employers have a duty to avoid it
treat stress as a health issue where job performance is affected
give priority to the assessment of jobs for their stress potential and for measures to eliminate or reduce it to a minimum
provide counselling under conditions of strict confidentiality and which suit workers
provide information and training for all employees.

The alternative is to negotiate anti-stress provisions into employment conditions such as staffing levels, working hours, shift patterns, performance levels, and all the variants of human resource management. The two approaches are not incompatible. The introduction of health and safety considerations into general negotiations should help to strengthen the union's overall approach.

Traumatic Incidents

Both short- and long-term disorders can arise in people exposed to traumatic incidents at work. Measures to assist workers in these circumstances should include:
appropriate paid time off work
availability of suitable counselling
possibility of referral to specialist medical care.

Employer Responses

Employer responses to occupational stress favour the provision of counselling, occupational health programmes, employee assistance programmes and healthy life-style campaigns. These may be helpful in reducing stress levels but they do not address the factors in the job which produce stress in the first place and they tend to transfer responsibility for the condition and its prevention from the employer to the individual worker.

TUC Charter

The TUC launched a Charter on Stress in Autumn 1996. This sets out demands on the European Commission, the UK Government, the Health and Safety Executive and employers. It proposes that the TUC should:
provide courses on preventing stress and negotiating workplace agreements for safety reps and fulltime officers
produce easy to use leaflets on stress aimed at trade union members and checklists for safety reps to use in identifying stress problems
Develop bargaining briefs on stress and on the various stressors implicated, so that trade union negotiators can secure agreements with employers.