The recent National Stress Week served to highlight how employees are working harder and longer due to advances in technology and the increasing demands placed upon them. Has the issue of the resulting stress been addressed in the recent Human Rights legislation? Interestingly, under the European Convention on Human Rights, there is ‘no right to work’. However, for those employed, there are issues which the Convention does cover.
Stress affects people in their private lives, their employment and their medical and psychological conditions. Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights indicates that a person has the right to respect for their private and family life, home and correspondence. Private and family life therefore has an element of protection and the state should act in a way that enables individuals to lead a normal family life. If the state, in the form of a public authority, interferes in a person's private and family life by choice, it must have ample
