Employers' duties in stress cases

The facts

This long-running case was brought by a number of workers who had suffered from stress, leading to ill health and eventually to their having to leave work. After losing the right at the Court of Appeal to claim compensation from their employer, they appealed to the House of Lords.

The ruling

The House of Lords held that, while the test of "reasonable foreseeity" established by the Court of Appeal was correct, the court had wrongly concluded on the facts that the test had been met.

The employer should have foreseen that the employee's mental health would be impaired if he continued to work the same hours as he had done before his sickness absence. According to the majority of the court, the employer should have made some effort to reduce the employee's workload, even if the reduction had been small.

Barber v Somerset CC [2004] UKHL 13