New HSE guidance to work-related stress: more details

As workplacelaw.net predicted last week, the HSE has published new guidance for employers on work-related stress. It is estimated that half a million people in Britain suffer from work-related illnesses, which are responsible for the loss of 6.5m working days each year.

The new guide, according to the HSE, provides a step-by-step approach to tackling the causes of stress in the workplace, and helps managers identify who is at risk and what steps they can take to prevent problems occurring, as well as outlining employers' statutory obligations and making the case for taking effective action now.

Spokesperson for HSE, Elizabeth Gyngell, claims "The guidance is the first step towards producing management standards which will establish benchmarks for measuring employers' performance in preventing work-related stress and will make enforcing stress-related health and safety offences easier. We will be developing these in partnership with business over the next few years."

The trade union MSF welcomed the HSE's guidelines. Chris Ball, the MSF's national Secretary for the working environment announced "This guide for managers will make an important contribution to setting standards of what is acceptable and normal in any organisation, and what steps managers can be expected to take in dealing with stress at work."
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