Inappopriate stress

What is Inappropriate Stress?

Inappropriate stress is a form of bullying which uses authority over you or other employees to force you into situations that are outside of your responsibilities. Your employer must effectively ‘force’ you to engage in these activities. Essentially you should never have to put up with managing tasks outside of your employment contract or taking on extra duties against your will. It is advised that you should speak to your Human Resources department, union or manager before seeking legal advice.

 

Non-Contracted Hour’s

Employers will typically have you sign a contract that includes the hour’s you must work, but they cannot force you to do more than your contracted hour’s. It is your decision whether you accept additional hour’s if they are requested. If you feel pressured into doing more than your contracted hour’s you should contact your HR department. If this is not possible, or you are unhappy with their conduct you can start a case with ourselves and your caseworker will mediate matters on your behalf.

 

Denial of Your Contractual Rights

You have the right to enjoy certain contractual and legislative benefits from your work. Employers cannot deny you these benefits. Check your employment contract to see what your rights are, and be aware of any variation clauses.

 

Right to a Salary

As an employee, you have the right to be paid for your work. If your employer withholds funds from your salary without due cause or has not paid you on time, they are failing to adhere to your contractual rights. You have the right to demand immediate payment from them. The terms of when you will be paid, such as the date, the amount (if working on a salaried basis) and the frequency of payment will be listed on your employment contract. If they fail to pay even after your demand, you are entitled to enforce your right to payment through taking legal action or through your union. You may also seek to inform your Human Resources department of the breach in your contract.

 

Your employer cannot make deductions from your salary unless the deduction falls within the categories listed clearly under your employment contract. This may be initial deductions such as material costs for producing uniforms for your use, or general costs when stock is damaged by you. Your employers are not legally permitted to create new clauses without your permission or prior knowledge and consent. If your boss tells you that they are making amendments to your contract (save for obvious sections such as a rise in the minimum wage) then we strongly suggest that you check it over and be fully aware of its contents before you sign it.

 

How we can help

The main issue in regard to stress is proving that it lies with the employer, some stress may be due to your life outside work and the stress at work has simply “tipped you over the edge”, obviously if your co-workers are under a similar amount of stress to you with no issues then the issue would point to one where the main contributor is outside work (and hance not a legal matter).  Ultimately it would depend on whether you can state, with a fair degree of certainty that the problem was caused by an employer breaking their duty of care towards you, essentially the criteria for a claim depends on proving negligence. 

 

We would suggest the best route is via the existing provisions created by your employer, such as grievance procedures, if however, these are not resolving the issue then we would be happy to mediate with your employer to try and resolve the matter, we would make them aware of their legal rights towards you and the potential ramifications for the business. If ultimately there is no intent or interest then we would consult with you regarding leaving the job and claiming constructive dismissal.

 

If you believe that there is a fair chance of a claim then you would need to open a case so that your personal caseworker can being the process, to initiate a case simply click on the link at the top of the page. activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link.

 

To quantify compensation our legal team may need to appoint consultants to assess your situation, they are privately contracted by us (and therefore their cost would be classed as a disbursement). To quantify the potential claim in regard to mental trauma we would suggest an additional report from our psychological team.

 

The claim will consider two types of damages:

• General damages- this compensates the victim for the pain and suffering endured, and for the loss of enjoyment of life as a result of the negligent act.
• Special damages- this compensates the victim for any personal costs incurred as a result of the negligent act. It can also cover any additional costs required in the future such as remedial surgery to remedy the mistake, mental suffering and so on.

 

Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our legal team and medical consultant and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.