ABSTRACT
It was seen in the preceding chapters that there may be a number of reasons why an employee may be denied recovery for psychiatric illness suffered in the workplace. It may be due to an absence of duty. It might perhaps be a case in England where the employee is a secondary victim who is unable to establish the three Alcock prerequisites, particularly the requirement of close ties of love and affection between the plaintiff and the victim.1 A duty will also be denied in Australia or England (in the case of secondary victims) where the employee's reaction is not that of a person of normal fortitude, the employer not knowing of any special vulnerability on the part of the employee. Alternatively, an employee may be unable to recover because, for example, he or she cannot show that his or her psychiatric illness was caused by the employer's conduct, or because the risk of such an injury was not reasonably foreseeable in the circumstances.
