What measures should an employer take when an employee makes a claim of work-related stress?
The message for employers is that having a stress at work policy in place or providing counselling to individuals is not enough provision to deal with stress. They need to be aware of making unreasonable demands on individuals. Where an individual makes their employer aware that they are suffering from work-related stress and that this could lead to an identifiable mental illness, the employer must consider the nature and extent of the work being carried out by the employee. In particular, the employer should consider: – whether the workload is much more than is normal for that particular type of job – whether the demands being made of that individual are unreasonable when compared to the demands that are made of others in the same or comparable jobs – whether there are signs that others doing this job are also suffering harmful levels of stress. Having identified any unreasonable demands on the individual, it is then necessary for the employer to identify steps that can be taken to su
