ABSTRACT
When the workplace is believed to be the cause of emotional damage the victim usually claims that they are suffering from stress related problems. If the problems arising from this cannot be settled without recourse to the legal system then a civil action ensues and the claim is that the employer has been negligent. This is a ‘tort’ or civil wrong and the usual remedy is damages. Most cases for the tort of negligence, arising from injury in the workplace, are the result of some physical injury that, it is claimed, resulted from an employers failure to provide a safe environment. Only in the last 50 years has English law extended the tort of negligence to encompass ‘psychiatric injury’ (Barrett and Howells, 2000). Prior to this successful actions involving emotional distress were confined to cases involving ‘nervous shock’ ensuing from involvement in, or close observation of, events causing or likely to cause severe physical injury or death. Thus the law recognised conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. However, in recent years, i.e., the last decade, some civil actions have succeeded when ‘mental breakdown’ has resulted from persistent work overload.
