Work related stress

The Health and Safety Executive state that 13.5 million working days are lost each year due to work-related stress.

What is work related stress?

Stress is the reaction someone may have in response to excessive pressure or demands placed upon them. If it is prolonged or intense it may result in mental and physical ill-health, such as depression,heart disease, nervous breakdown etc.

Stress is one of the most commonly reported cause of occupational ill-health and resulting lost days of work.

What should an employer do to prevent/ minimise work related stress?

An employer has a duty under health and safety legislation to ensure employees are not made ill due to their work. Indicators of stress may be high staff turnover, increase in sickness absence, reduced work performance, poor time keeping, customer complaints.

Where stress caused or made worse by work could lead to ill health, there must be an assessment of the risk. This will involve:

• identifying pressures at work that could cause stress
• determine who is likely to be affected
• identifying what controls are in place to minimise pressures and determine whether these are sufficient to prevent/minimise stress from occurring.

Complaints and enquiries

To make a complaint or enquire online, use the following form.

Further information about the Food and Environmental Safety service and other contact details can be found on our Standards of Service page.