legal updates
Thursday, 05 Apr 2012
YOUR EMPLOYMENT FORUM: Stress at work
Thank you to all those who attended the Your Employment Forum last week. An egg-cellent time was had by all (only those who attended will know what that means)!
And a very big thank you to Diane Florence from Fife Employment Access Trust who helped to egg-stract (another clue) the key issues and action points from the latest stress statistics and started a smashing (and another!) discussion on the practical ways workplace stress issues can be managed. Fife Employment Access Trust offers a range of really useful services to employers and further details can be found on their website www.journeytowork.co.uk.
Workplace stress is no yolk (sorry!) and there was a great deal of debate about how best to manage stress-related absences without falling fowl (I couldn’t resist!)) of the law. All employers have a duty under health and safety law to assess and take measures to control risks from work-related stress as well as a duty to take reasonable care to ensure the health and safety of your employees. If one of your employees suffers from stress related ill-health and the Court decides that you should have been able to prevent it as their employer, or you have dismissed an employee and the Tribunal decides that this was disability discrimination, there is no limit to the compensation your employee could receive.
If you’d like to learn more about these duties or find out how to tackle any stress-related absences in your workplace let us know and we’d be egg-static (that was the last one!) to help.
Finally, well done to Diane who scooped the coveted the top prize in our Decorated Easter Bonnet competition. Her entry egg-ceded all expectations – sorry, I couldn’t help myself!