An employee cannot claim damages for work-induced stress unless the employee can show that the stress has resulted in psychiatric illness, or is about to, and this matter has been brought to the attention of the employer.
The case also established that an employer is not obliged to protect a worker from psychiatric injury unless it is reasonably foreseeable that an employee is likely to suffer stress to the point where it becomes a psychiatric disorder.
In 1995, the first successful case of damages for workplace stress were awarded in Walker v Northumberland County Council [1995]. This new case limits the scope of that precedent.
Stress is a state of mind rather than a state of play. This case restricts employee claims to the most blatant breaches of a duty of care.
Rorrison v West Lothian College and Lothian Regional Council [2000].
[2000]