Injury-to-feelings claims are limited to specific cases

There is no right to compensation for injury to feelings in unfair or constructive dismissal cases, according to a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruling.

It is only where workers take discrimination claims on the grounds of sex, race, disability or on the grounds of union membership and/or activities, that they can be compensated for injury to feelings.

The ruling effectively means that individuals who have been unlawfully dismissed cannot get compensation for any stress or psychological harm their employer's unlawful actions have caused.

This is the outcome of a major review of the law on compensation and is based on three separate claims recently heard together at the EAT.

In each case the employee was claiming that the way they had been unlawfully dismissed had resulted in stress or mental damage, over and above what would happen in a normal dismissal claim.

In one of the three cases, for example, an employment tribunal had awarded an additional £3,200 in compensation after medical evidence showing that the employee had suffered depression over the way he had been dismissed.

* Dunnachie v Kingston upon Hull City Council; Williams v Southampton Institute; Dawson v Stonham Housing Association EAT/0726/02