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Posted By Richard
Could someone please explain to a simple old engineer why stress should not be reportable under RIDDOR?
It is surely just as much a work related illness as dermatitis or asbestos related conditions, and is nearly always caused by a clear and foreseeable breach of HASAWA, even if only the good old "duty of care".
According to some statistics is the biggest "time off" illness (but where do they get the data from?), and yet it is largely unrecorded.
Richard
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Posted By Eddie Newall Stress isn't an illness but a response of the body, physical or otherwise, when an individual is subjected to stressors. If stress results in an illness, and medical opinion is that it is entirely or mainly due to stress, it still doesn't fall within the list of reportable diseases, injuries and dangerous occurences as specified by RIDDOR. So the simple answer to your question is that stress isn't on the list! You can see the complete list at http://www.riddor.gov.uk/reportanincident.htmlThe other problem with stress-related illness is determining how much is work-related since stress is a significant feature of life outside work. The RIDDOR list of diseases and injuries are all definitely work-related.
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Posted By Alistair Forsyth
Open the can of worms - as I disagree.
Granted that stress can be caused by a wide range of factors (some more definable than others), but the HSW Act 1974 relates to protecting from injury to a person's physical and mental health.
Therefore, if someone had more than 3 days off due to stress, distress, etc that was clearly linked to an incident at work, then it would be reportable under RIDDOR. In a past job, I have reported such an incident to the HSE.
Please note that these views are based on my own experience and are not necessarily representative of the Learning and Skills Council.
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Posted By Nick Higginson
Is it partly due to the fact that it is very difficult for HSE to investigate?
If there is a manual handling injury, or a machinery accident, it is straightforward for them to see what went wrong, issue an enforcement notice and expect to see improvements. I'm not sure it would be quite so straight forward with stress.
Regards,
Nick
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Posted By Eddie Newall
I can only reiterate that stress is not an illness. In my opinion it is a hazard since it has the potential to cause harm. It can certainly result in ill-health and accidents. Therefore it is an important health & safety issue. As for reporting stress-related illness or injury under RIDDOR there is nothing to stop anyone doing so. But the question remains: is stress-related illness/injury reportable under RIDDOR?
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Posted By Jay Joshi
Stress is not reportable under RIDDOR. Under RIDDOR one has to report INJURIES caused by ACCIDENTS i.e. the fatal, major & over 3 day ones. Stress is not an INJURY caused by an ACCIDENT, therefore cannot be considered for over 3-day reporting. Refer to Regulation 3(2) of RIDDOR 95. It states.... BECAUSE OF AN INJURY RESULTING FROM AN ACCIDENT ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH WORK .......
In the context of REPORTABLE DISEASES, all diseases reportable under RIDDOR have very clear links with work and are actual physiological conditions that can be detected medically. Stress is essentially a psychological condition and can be due to a complex set of factors, both work-related & personal ones. Also, the diseases are listed in the schedule.
In addition, the RIDDOR reportable diseases list is closely identical to the list of prescribed diseases for Industrial Disease benefits under the various Industrial Injuries Prescribed Diseases Regulations.
Until there are more robust methods of determining whether stress is work-related or not, it is not a practical proposition to consider stress as RIDDDOR reportable disease/illness.
That is why the results of the HSC discussion document on Managing Stress in the Workplace in 1999 did not conclusively provide the explicit regulation or ACoP route for Stress in the Workplace, but commissioning of research on this complex subject.
It is possible that if some robust/reliable and widely acceptable methods of determining work related-stress are compiled, then stress may in the future become reportable when RIDDOR 95 is either amended or completely reviewed.
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Posted By Richard
Thanks for the responses, but my original question appears to have been misunderstood to a degree. I am familiar with RIDDOR and am well aware that stress is not reportable. My question is why?
Whether we call it an illness (and that point is arguable - I've had it and I certainly felt ill!), or an injury (to the psyche or mental state or call it what you will) the fact is that it is a work related health condition, and as such should be reportable on those grounds
Richard
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