Stress: Rising Pressure, Rising Claims

By Vivienne Williams, Partner, Berrymans Lace Mawer, Manchester.

The most recent TUC statistics (November 2004) suggest that 58% of employees feel stressed at work, 63% in companies with over 1000 employees.The HSE indicate that some 500,000 people in the UK are suffering work-related stress at a level which they consider is making them ill. Up to 5mn people say that they feel very or extremely stressed by their work. Stress claims remain an area of growth in spite of the obstacles placed in claimants’ way by the courts.