This was the first time in a UK court that a judgement was found against an employer for stress at work. The court held that the employer, Northumberland County Council was liable for psychiatric illness because of the working environment of Walker.
Although it is now eight years old and there have been many cases since, the parameters of the case are still absolutely critical to the legislative environment pertaining to employer liability.
Key facts about the case.
Mr Walker was a social worker with no previous history of illness. At the end of November 1986 he suffered a nervous breakdown following an increase in his workload. He returned to work in March 1987 after five months sickness absence. He was advised by his GP not to go back to the same level of work as before and his manager agreed to arrangements to help alleviate the workload. When he returned to work has was faced with a backlog of case work that had built up while he was absent. But crucially, the arrangements made with his manager for alleviating workload were not put into place. Mr Walker suffered another nervous breakdown in September 1987 and was dismissed in February 1988 on the grounds of ill-health.
The court judgement was critical in formulating the grounds for liability. It found that the employer was not liable for the first nervous breakdown since this was not reasonably foreseeable. However, it stated that the second breakdown was reasonably foreseeable, especially since the arrangements for alleviating workload that should have been applied were not applied. The court found that the employer was in breach of its duty of care to Mr Walker in relation to the second breakdown. Prior to an appeal, Mr Walker negotiated an out of court settlement of £175,000 from his employer.
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