Mental health and safety at work: employer duties

When your team keeps working late and staff go off sick, your employer has a safety problem to investigate. Unanswered complaints about bullying are another warning. The employer must assess the risks built into the work and take reasonable steps to reduce them.

Your employer’s duty to assess stress

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 requires employers to protect employees’ health so far as reasonably practicable. That includes mental health.

Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks to employees and others affected by the work. HSE says to assess work-related stress like any other health and safety risk. This is an existing duty, not a new rule introduced in 2026.

Even a business with four employees must assess the risks. At five or more, it must record the significant findings and any group especially at risk. It must review the assessment when it has reason to doubt its validity or there has been a significant change.

Six areas to check for stress risks

HSE’s Management Standards offer a practical way to look for causes. They are guidance, not a statutory checklist or a guarantee that an assessment is sufficient.

HSE’s Talking Toolkit provides prompts for conversations with staff. Share the findings and action plan with the people affected. A restructure, a switch to hybrid working or a rise in stress-related absence may mean the assessment needs another look.

How to assess work-related stress

1. Find the pressures. Check absence, turnover, overtime and complaints. Ask people where the work becomes unmanageable. Make it safe to answer honestly.
2. Identify who is exposed. Risks differ between jobs and workplaces. Check night shifts and complaints teams as well as people working alone at home. Note groups at particular risk.
3. Change the work. Cover leave, revise deadlines, clarify responsibilities and give people a route to report bullying. Counselling is support, not a replacement for these fixes.
4. Record and share. At five or more employees, record significant findings and groups especially at risk. Give staff the findings and an action plan that names who will do each task and by when.
5. Review. Ask whether the changes worked. Revisit the assessment after significant changes or when it may no longer be valid.

Home and hybrid workers are covered

The risk-assessment duty covers people working from home. HSE also expects employers to assess display-screen-equipment risks for home workstations.

Ask about isolation and messages that arrive at all hours. Do meetings leave enough time to finish the work? Regular check-ins help managers spot problems they cannot see on site. A switch to hybrid work may require the employer to review the assessment. The location change alone does not prove a breach. See our guide to health and safety for home and hybrid workers.

When stress becomes a disability at work

Stress is not itself a medical diagnosis. But anxiety or depression may be a disability under the Equality Act 2010 if a mental impairment has a substantial, long-term adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities. The stress risk-assessment duty applies whether or not anyone has a diagnosis.

Long-term means an effect that has lasted, or is likely to last, at least 12 months. Recurring conditions can qualify even when symptoms come and go; see Schedule 1 to the Equality Act.

Where the employer knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, of a disability and a substantial disadvantage at work, it must consider reasonable adjustments. Discrimination arising from disability, direct discrimination and harassment are separate potential claims. A diagnosis alone does not decide which claim succeeds; read our Equality Act guide.

Ask for a specific change and explain the disadvantage it addresses. An earlier shift, for example, may allow treatment without losing pay. An employer need not accept every proposal, but should consider workable alternatives. Since 6 April 2024 employees can also request flexible working from day one, twice in 12 months. The usual decision period is two months and an employer must consult before refusal. That procedure does not replace the adjustments duty.

Bullying, harassment and the October change

Bullying is a stress risk whether or not it relates to a protected characteristic. Where it does not, there is no general standalone employment tribunal claim for “bullying”; other routes may apply, including a grievance, constructive dismissal or a psychiatric-injury claim if its legal tests are met. See what to do about bullying.

Sexual harassment is different. Great Britain employers have had to take reasonable steps to prevent it since October 2024. A requirement to take all reasonable steps is scheduled for 30 October 2026, along with an obligation not to permit harassment of employees by third parties such as customers or patients. Those changes are not in force on 1 October. See our guide to sexual harassment at work.

Hours, rest and time off

Rest helps control excessive workload. Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, the usual limit is a 48-hour average working week, normally measured over 17 weeks, with a voluntary opt-out. The usual rest entitlements include 11 consecutive hours of daily rest, 24 hours of weekly rest or 48 hours per fortnight, and a 20-minute break when the working day exceeds six hours. Workers generally have 5.6 weeks’ statutory paid holiday. Night workers have additional limits and a right to free health assessments. See working-time limits and rest breaks.

An “unlimited leave” policy must still deliver the statutory minimum. Employers cannot normally pay in lieu of that minimum until employment ends; see how unlimited leave policies work.

Sick pay for mental-health absence

Since 6 April 2026, eligible employees off sick with stress, anxiety or another illness can get Statutory Sick Pay at the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, for up to 28 weeks. The lower earnings limit and three waiting days have been removed. Payment starts with full qualifying days normally worked, not for a day on which the person works part of a shift.

Can you be dismissed for stress-related absence?

Yes, a prolonged absence can lead to a fair capability dismissal, but an employer must assess the circumstances rather than dismiss because of a diagnosis. If the employee is disabled, it must consider reasonable adjustments; treatment of absence may also amount to disability discrimination. Compensation for discrimination is not subject to the ordinary unfair dismissal compensatory cap.

Ask what medical or occupational-health evidence the employer has, whether you have been consulted, what adjustments were tried and whether alternatives to dismissal were considered. A sudden capability hearing after months of silence is a warning sign. See dismissal because of illness and discipline while off sick.

Great Britain employees who reasonably believe they face serious and imminent danger may be protected if they take the steps described in section 44 or section 100 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Automatically unfair dismissal under section 100 has no qualifying service period; not every experience of stress meets the serious-and-imminent-danger test. Ordinary unfair dismissal generally still requires two years’ service on 1 October 2026. A reduction to six months for dismissals from 1 January 2027, and removal of the ordinary compensatory cap, are scheduled but not yet in force.

Who the duties protect

In Great Britain, section 2 of the 1974 Act protects employees; section 3 addresses risks that a business’s activities pose to others, including agency workers and contractors. Regulation 3 requires employers to assess risks to both employees and other people affected by their work. Your protection depends on the work and your status. A contract label does not decide it.

Before an assignment, ask the agency and hirer what health and safety risks have been identified and who deals with them. Workload and customer abuse do not stop being risks because somebody works through an agency. For status questions see employment status and agency worker rights.

Can you sue over work-related stress?

HSE, local authorities or HSENI can investigate breaches of health and safety law and issue notices. A prosecution does not award you damages.

An employee or worker may have a discrimination claim in an employment tribunal. An employee may also have an unfair or constructive dismissal claim.

To claim psychiatric-injury damages in negligence in a civil court, you must prove that the injury was reasonably foreseeable and that the employer failed to take reasonable care. See suing for work-related stress.

Under Hatton v Sutherland and Barber v Somerset County Council, what the employer knew matters. A written report of symptoms, repeated warnings about workload or an obvious deterioration can put the employer on notice, but do not automatically establish liability.

For most Great Britain tribunal claims arising from acts on or after 1 October 2026, the new limit is six months, subject to claim-specific rules and Acas early conciliation. An act before that date does not automatically gain the new period. Get advice promptly rather than waiting for the last day. A separate court claim for personal injury has different limitation rules.

Stress alone is not a reportable injury or disease under RIDDOR. Keep your own record: requests for assessment, dates of warnings, fit notes, proposed adjustments and the employer’s replies.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The Great Britain health and safety rules, Working Time Regulations and Equality Act discussed above apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Scotland’s tribunal procedure and court routes differ in places; the six-month change for certain Scottish employment contract claims takes effect on 9 November 2026, not 1 October.

Northern Ireland has parallel health and safety duties under the Health and Safety at Work (NI) Order 1978 and Management Regulations (NI) 2000, enforced by HSENI and district councils. Disability law there rests on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, not the Equality Act 2010. The April 2026 SSP reforms extend to Northern Ireland, but the Employment Rights Act 2025 extends six-month claim limits there only for certain industrial tribunal claims; do not assume the Great Britain deadline applies to an NI disability claim. The October harassment reforms described here are Great Britain measures. See employment law in Northern Ireland.

What changed and what comes next

1. 6 Apr 2026SSP reform in force

   No lower earnings limit or waiting days; weekly rate is the lower of £123.25 or 80% of average earnings.

2. 1 Oct 2026Longer GB claim limits in force

   Six months for most claims where the relevant act or date is on or after today; older acts remain under previous rules. Scottish contract claims have a later start.

3. 30 Oct 2026Harassment reform scheduled

   All reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment and a new third-party harassment obligation in Great Britain, subject to commencement.

4. 1 Jan 2027Dismissal reform scheduled

   Six months’ service for ordinary unfair dismissal for dismissals from this date, and no ordinary compensatory cap, subject to commencement.