Is stress a disability?

majorwally

I know someone who is off work with work related stress.

They are trying to find out if their condition is a disability, because if it is, their work would have to make reasonable adjustments, for them to get back to work.

Trouble is, no one seems to know if it is a disability.
They have asked their doctor who said he didn't know!

Does anyone know how they could find out if it's counted as a disability?

Cycrow

i doubt it would be counted as a disability.
but it could well be a health and safety concern.

Dogger69

It can be, but in isolation it would have to be a pretty extreme and enduring episode. Does the person have any other mental health concerns? How long have they been off for, and is this the first episode?

Ultimately it is up to a tribunal to decide if any condition is deemed a disability.

ohreally

http://www.thompsonstradeunionlaw.co.uk/information-and-resources/stress-at-work.htm

Read Walker v Northumberland council, this is a landmark stress case.

it is important to remember that tribunals always require persuasive medical evidence of disability, including mental health disability.GP letters or fit-notes indicating that a worker is suffering from “work-related stress” are very unlikely to be regarded as adequate for this purpose.
“Stress” itself is not regarded by the tribunal as a mental health condition for the purposes of disability discrimination legislation.

In the recent case of J v DLA Piper (UKEAT/0263/09), the claimant’s offer of a job as a professional support lawyer for a large law firm was withdrawn after she revealed a history of depression. She brought a claim for disability discrimination, but the EAT concluded that her condition did not amount to a disability for these purposes. In reaching its conclusion, the EAT offered some guidance as to when a mental health condition is likely to be regarded as a disability under equality laws.
The tribunal indicated that while “clinical depression” will almost always be regarded as a disability, “reactive depression”, in the form of the “anxiety, stress and low mood” a person suffers as a reaction to adverse circumstances such as problems at work is less likely to qualify as a disability, although each case will continue to be examined on its own individual facts, in particular the severity of the condition.

Takeaway_Addict

ohreally wrote: »

http://www.thompsonstradeunionlaw.co.uk/information-and-resources/stress-at-work.htm

Read Walker v Northumberland council, this is a landmark stress case.

Good to know thanks

Brassedoff

I could never imagine in a million years that it is treated as such.

Now not having use of my legs is of course

Blackpool_Saver

taken in isolation, unless very extreme probably not BUT If it leads to other conditions such as depression/anxiety etc, then it may well become a disability. Stress can lead to many other health conditions, but you know that anyway.

persa

My understanding is that as well as having a major detrimental impact on the individual's day-to-day, the condition must have already lasted for a year or is likely to last for a year. Depends on the individual, but I would have thought a first bout of time off for stress would not be expected to drag on for as long as that.

Only a layperson in this area of law though, take my above comments with a good pinch.

pebble65

In some circumstances an employee who is suffering ill-health due to stress might be defined as having a disability, and therefore fall under equality legislation

, check out the Equalities Act 2010 definitions here

https://www.gov.uk/definition-of-disability-under-equality-act-2010

which says disability can arise from a wide range of impairments which can be:

• sensory impairments, such as those affecting sight or hearing;
• impairments with fluctuating or recurring effects such as rheumatoid arthritis, myalgic encephalitis (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, depression and epilepsy;
• progressive, such as motor neurone disease, muscular dystrophy, forms of dementia and lupus (SLE);
• organ specific, including respiratory conditions, such as asthma, and cardiovascular diseases, including thrombosis, stroke and heart disease;
• developmental, such as autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), dyslexia and dyspraxia;
• learning difficulties;
• mental health conditions and mental illnesses, such as depression, schizophrenia, eating disorders, bipolar affective disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, as well as personality disorders and some self-harming behaviour;

The Act itself covers stress and mental health issues in some depth.

This guide from cipd

http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1B504994-F40F-4801-B93D-8FA4DE73E1FD/0/5233Stress_and_Law_guide.pdf

is also very informative about Stress and the Law. And if your friend does fall within these definitions, then the employer will have to consider Reasonable adjustments

I in 4 people suffer from mental health issues, which can include stress related ill health . Please check out

http://www.time-to-change.org.uk

and support their campaign for better awareness of mental health issues.

zzzLazyDaisy

majorwally wrote: »

I know someone who is off work with work related stress.

They are trying to find out if their condition is a disability, because if it is, their work would have to make reasonable adjustments, for them to get back to work.

Trouble is, no one seems to know if it is a disability.
They have asked their doctor who said he didn't know!

Does anyone know how they could find out if it's counted as a disability?

It really depends on degree and effect. For stress to be a disability, it would have to amount to a mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your friend's ability to do normal daily activities.

What this means is that if the problem is work-related (ie resolves or improves when s/he is away from the workplace) this is unlikely to be a disability, because the test is not how the condition affects the person's ability to work, but a broader test of how it affects their ability to carry out normal day to day activities (ie it is an illness which is not confined to work-related issues, but has a major impact on his/her whole life, which is longterm and ongoing). Often with work related stress, the person's condition improves when they are removed from the environment - in other words, it is the job that is the problem, not their over all mental health or inability to cope with life generally.

The Walker case is an old case, and concerned whether an employee can make a personal injury claim for stress related injury arising out of the employer's negligence (before this an employee could only claim if they had suffered a physical injury). In that case Mr Walker was a social worker, he had a mental breakdown due to work related stress and was hospitalised. The employer was aware of the situation and agreed to reduce his workload and give him more support (this was in the days before any legal obligation on the employer to make reasonable adjustments). Mr W returned to work, but the employer failed to make any changes to his workload, and he had another severe mental breakdown and ended up back in hospital. The case is a landmark case because it was the first case which accepted that there was such a thing as stress related injury - which is not in dispute these days.

The second case quoted above concerned a solicitor with a long history of clinical depression, and is much more recent. After a period off sick with depression, she successfully applied for a new job, but the job offer was withdrawn when the new employer found out about her history of depression. It was found that she was disabled under the act, and that the new employer had unlawfully discriminated against her.

However, the important point about both cases was that the employees were being treated for mental illness, which affected their ability to cope not just with work, but with their normal day to day lives. It was more than 'just' stress (I don't mean to minimise the effect that stress can have).

So stress on its own is unlikely to count as a disability, because it does not meet the definition of being 'substantial', 'long term', 'mental impairment'.

majorwally

Thanks Guys,

All very informative and exactly why I love this site.
Where else could you get this much info for free.

Anyway, back to my friend.

Due to the stress caused by what they say is unfair practices at work, they have been off for 6 months with "work related stress"
Their employer hasn't offered anything in the way of different work, or less demanding or agreed to stop the unfairness.

My friend is now having all sorts of health problems, including high blood pressure which they didn't have before all this started.

This is why I was asking.
Obviously they would have to try and do something for them if they could prove it is a disability in their life.

Thanks again.