Health and Safety 

We are all very familiar with the concept of 'Health and Safety'.

This is very much an important factor in the workplace and employers have a legal duty to protect a person from harm in respect of their 'health and safety' during working hours and whilst at their physical workplace.

We all know about hard-hats, hi-vis jackets, slippery surfaces and trip hazards.

 

Protected characteristics

However some people are also protected through laws regarding what are called their 'Protected Characteristics' and this includes any disability, their race, their gender, their sexuality and much more.

These protected characteristics must be taken into account by an employer to ensure additional harm is not caused to a person because of these 'protected characteristics'.  Such harm can be seen to be caused directly or indirectly.

 

Harm in relation to people with mental health challenges

What we are interested in exploring here is not harm that is physical or caused physically and can be reasonably and clearly identified and acknowleged, but harm in relation to 'mental health'.  Psycological and/or emotional harm in a workplace contect and employers duties and responsibilities in relation to this is nowhere near as clear cut.

The aim of this regularly updated feature is to help employers better understand their obligations and help employees better understand their rights. 

All too often within the workspace, situations arise between the employer and an employee with mental health challenges that could be avoided and this feature will address the avoidance of issues that can lead to costly legal action and in some cases, even worse.

 

Mental health in the workplace

Here are some valuable statistics on mental health within the workplace. 

A good source of statistics is:  Mental health at work: statistics

Here are just a few:

• 1 in almost 7 people experience mental health problems in the workplace (14.7%).
• Women in full-time employment are nearly twice as likely to have a common mental health problem as full-time employed men (19.8% vs 10.9%).
• Evidence suggests that 12.7% of all sickness absence days in the UK can be attributed to mental health conditions.

 

What about anxiety?

Anxiety is a type of fear usually associated with the thought of a threat or something going wrong in the future, but it can also arise from something happening right now.

• Younger people are more likely to have some form of anxiety:
  • In 2021, those aged 16 to 29 years were most likely to have some form of anxiety (28% likely)
  • This decreased steadily through the age groups, and the least likely group was those aged 70 and over (5% likely)
• More women report experiencing high levels of anxiety than men:
  • In 2022/23, an average of 37.1% of women and 29.9% of men reported high levels of anxiety
  • Compared to data from 2012 to 2015, this has increased significantly from 21.8% of women and 18.3% of men reporting high levels of anxiety
• There was an increase in people reporting high levels of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, but anxiety levels have begun to decrease since then:
  • 19.8% reported high levels of anxiety during 2018/19
  • This increased to 24.2% during 2020/21
  • But anxiety levels decreased the following year, with 22.5% reporting high levels of anxiety during 2021/22
• Of those experiencing anxiety, more people report experiencing ‘low’ or ‘very low’ levels of anxiety than those reporting ‘medium’ or ‘high’ levels:
  • From July to September 2022, 59.4% experienced ‘low’ or ‘very low’ levels
  • Whereas 40.5% of people experienced ‘medium’ or ‘high’ levels of anxiety

 

What should employers be aware of?

(1)

If you are told by an employee about their mental health and it is a disability, then the employer has a duty of care to make every effort to make any resonable adjustments to their place of work. 

See post "What is a reasonable adjustment plus examples"

(2) etc 

What should employees with mental health challenges be aware of?

(1)

If your mental health is a disabily and you wish to be covered at work under the Equality Act then your employer must know about your disability.

(2) etc