Clarification on Employee Stress and Collective Consultation

The Court of Appeal and EAT have respectively clarified the position for employers dealing with (i) employee workplace stress and (ii) collective redundancies. The decisions do not alter current law, but provide helpful guidance for employers dealing with these two difficult situations.

In the case of Hartman v South Essex Mental Health and Community Care NHS Trust the Court of Appeal considered a number of cases relating to stress at work. The CA confirmed some established principles:

• if an employer does not act on information that an employee is depressed at work, then it may be liable for the psychiatric injury suffered;