Bullying And Harassment At Work | Setfords

Bullying and Harassment at work

What are the common types of stress at work claims?

Stress and injury can be caused in many different ways but broadly speaking, successful claims normally fit into one or more of the following categories:

Bullying and Harassment

Overworked

Exposure to trauma

Lack of support

Poor management

Do I have a valid claim against my employer for bullying and harassment?

The easiest way to find out is to take our indicative test but in normal circumstances there are four hurdles you need to overcome in order to be successful.

  • Injury
  • You must show that you have suffered a recognised psychiatric injury (as opposed to just stress).

  • Foreseeability of Injury
  • In order for your employer’s duty of care to prevent you suffering psychiatric harm to be engaged, you must show that your employer knew, or ought to have known, you were becoming ill.

  • Breach of Duty
  • You must show some fault on behalf of your employer that would amount to a breach of the duty of care owed to you. There are various common law duties which place an employer under a duty to protect its employees from psychiatric injury which we can help explain to you.

  • Causation
  • You must show that your employer’s breach of duty caused, or materially contributed, to your injury and financial losses.

Take the bullying & harassment survey

It is a common misconception that you are unable to claim compensation from your employer if you have been bullied at work.

Broadly speaking, civil claims fall into 2 categories:

Would be claimants need to show they have suffered an injury or a recognised psychiatric illness (e.g. depression) which was foreseeable and caused by their employer’s breach of the duty of care owed to them.Did you know:
  • Common law bullying claims can only be brought successfully if the employer was aware the employee was becoming unwell as a result of the behaviour complained of. It is therefore vitally important that employees raise their concerns at the earliest opportunity.
  • Claimants have 3 years from the date they became unwell to commence a claim.
  • Compensation can include awards for their injury as well as past and future financial loses, such as lost earnings, which flow from that injury.
Claims under the Protection from Harassment Act are reserved for the most serious of bullying cases as the culpable behaviour needs to be worthy of criminal liability, after all, the original purpose of the Act was to address stalking!Claimants also need to show they have suffered truly abhorrent behaviour on more than one occasion.Did you know:
  • Claimants do not need to show the harassment related to a protected characteristic (as required for some claims in the employment tribunal).
  • Claimants have 6 years from the instances of harassment to commence a claim.
  • There is no requirement to show the injury was foreseeable or that any recognised psychiatric injury has been caused at all.

Why use Setfords for your stress claim?

£3.6m

The amount of compensation David Miers has recovered for clients in the last 2 years.

£100,000

The average amount of compensation per case David Miers has managed to recover for his clients.

15.4 million

Working days lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2017/18

595,000

Workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2017/18

57%

Stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 57% of all working days lost due to ill health in 2017/18

44%

Stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 44% of all work-related ill health cases in 2017/18

Take the Bullying & Harrassment survey

1. Which of the below better describes the behavior you have endured:

2. Have you raised a grievance about the bullying behaviour?

What was the outcome?

3. Have you been to see your GP about the bullying behaviour?

4. Did your employer know, or ought to have known, you were becoming ill as a result of the bullying behaviour?

How?

David Miers

David is an occupational stress and psychiatric injury specialist.

David is one of the few specialists in the country whose practice is solely made up of work related stress claims.

His expertise covers:

  • Stress at work claims
  • Bullying & harassment claims
  • Violence at work claims
  • Sexual harassment
Take stress claim survey Call David 01513 180 329
David Miers

Recent Notable stress claim cases