Workplace Report October 2017

Health & safety news

Pay out over dean’s failure


College lecturers’ union UCU member Kate Rawnsley has won £159,000 in damages in a personal injury stress case against Bradford College after a county court judge found that the art and design lecturer suffered depression and anxiety as a result of her employer’s negligence. 


She sent emails notifying the dean of the college that proposals to relocate her course to a room she did not think was suitable for art students were affecting her health. The judge found that these represented actual notification to the college that she was suffering, or likely to suffer, from stress-related ill health. 


“But the dean took no action,” the UCU reported. “He failed to meet with Kate. He did not inform her line managers of her concerns about the relocation. He did not refer her to occupational health services who would have undertaken a risk assessment. She was subsequently moved to the new room.”


In failing to take any action, the judge said that the dean had not followed the college’s own policy with regards to stress or acted as a prudent employer and concluded that there was a clear breach of duty on his part in not forwarding the emails.

https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/8948/Art-lecturer-awarded-159000-damages-in-Bradford-College-stress-case