EMPLOYMENT

What are my rights with mental health at work?

Health & Safety at work very much includes mental wellbeing.

Employers must take all reasonable steps to look after their employees’ health and safety at work. This means doing all they reasonably can to take care of employees’ physical and mental health, and ensuring a safe working environment is part of that. Although we tend to think of health and safety as referring to physical safety, damage to mental health, as well as physical injury, can result from a poor or unsafe working environment.

Mental health at work

Employers must take reasonable steps to look after their employees’ health and safety and provide a safe place of work. This incorporates safety regarding both physical and mental health.

If you have a mental health issue that amounts to a “disability” under the Equality Act 2010, your employer will be obliged to make reasonable adjustments to your working environment to reduce the impact of your condition. Failure to do so is potentially a matter of discrimination.

An employer should ideally deal with mental health by including a policy in the staff handbook/office manual. This is separate to a contract of employment.

Does mental health affect employment?

It can do. Some employers deal very well with mental health issues. Some do not. If you are suffering from mental health issues that affect your working life, you should feel able to raise them with your employer so that they can investigate and appropriate steps can be taken. More to the point, if you are suffering from poor mental health that has been caused by something at work, then you could raise a grievance to ask your employer to take action to help you and fix the problem.

What are my rights with mental health at work?

Your rights include the fact that your employer must take reasonable steps to look after your health and safety at work, including mental health. If you have a disability, your employer must not discriminate against you or treat you less favourably because of your disability, and must make reasonable adjustments to reduce the impact of your disability on your working environment.

Can I get sacked for mental health?

Yes, in that employers can always sack their employees – the question is whether that dismissal is fair or unfair, or discriminatory.

The better question here is whether you can be fairly sacked for mental health, to which the answer is not necessarily. If your condition is a “disability” under the Equality Act, then you have additional rights and protections. Your employer will be obliged to consider reasonable adjustments that could be made, and you would be protected from discriminatory decisions or steps taken in relation to you, including dismissal.

If your condition doesn’t amount to a “disability” then your options will depend on what has happened and how long you’ve worked for your employer, because you need two years’ service to gain the right not to be unfairly dismissed unless you have a claim for which you don’t need two years’ service – for instance certain health and safety related issues.

Employers can dismiss employees with mental health issues.

Does my employer have a duty of care for my mental health?

Yes. All employers are obliged to take reasonable steps to look after their employees’ health and safety. In terms of mental health, employers must help employees wherever work has caused an issue or is making it worse.

Your employer may need to do a risk assessment, or perhaps you want to raise a grievance to require your employer to investigate your complaint and resolve it.

Can you be sacked for being off with mental health?

Yes, but again, the question is whether a dismissal because of mental health is fair, unfair or discriminatory.

If you have taken a lot of time off work, and medical evidence suggests that you won’t be fit to return for some time, or you aren’t fit to do your own role, then it can be fair to dismiss you. If your condition amounts to a “disability” under the Equality Act, it’s a separate question whether a dismissal would be discriminatory or not, and whether the employer should have avoided dismissing you by making reasonable adjustments to your working environment or altered your job role to avoid dismissing you.

Can I sue my employer for stress and anxiety?

Yes, you may be able to bring a claim if your employer has caused you to suffer stress and anxiety, or has failed to help look after your mental health and safety. What claims you may have will depend on how long you have worked for your employer, and whether your condition amounts to a “disability” under the Equality Act. You may have a claim for personal injury as well as employment related claims, but that’s outside the scope of this post.

Before you actually bring a claim, though, you should try to resolve matters using your employer’s internal processes, such as raising a grievance. We’ll help you step by step through the process, whether you want to bring a claim no matter what, or if you’d just like help to extract yourself from a toxic situation.

Employment Law Solicitor

If you need more help with the subjects covered here then do reach out to our expert solicitors. You can speak to our employment solicitors online via email employment@qlaw.co.uk or call us on 03300 020 863.