Framing a Law

[Kev1n65]

Hi, does anyone have any pointers on this question I have been posed:

Evaluate the foreseeable difficulties in framing a statute law on the management of stress at work

[Paul from Ilkley]

Hi Kev, I know its a week or two on, but I would say that the problem with stress and its causes can be hard to prove. Eg get run over at work, it is plain to see what happened etc, however if someone is stressed, it may well be external sources to the workplace causing it. Also, different people can take different levels of stress, so how do you quantify what causes stress and what are acceptable levels when there are so many variables ?

Probably doesn't answer your question but that's my take on stress !
Paul

[Alexis]

I would tend to agree with Paul. It would be very difficult indeed to frame a specific Statute Law for Managing stress at work for the reasons Paul has given.

Remember the HSWA and MHSWR are there to cover these things, so is it really necessary to frame another Statute?

HSWA - If the workload, for whatever reason, is causing ill-health and/or stress, then under HSWA the organisation has that all important "duty of care" "so far as is reasonably practicable" to reduce that stress in whichever way is best suited to the individual/s.

MHSWR - In order to reduce that stress, this is where the MHSWR comes in by doing the RA in order to identify exactly what is causing or adding to that specific person's stress, be it due to external or internal factors, or even both. Once identified, these Regulations are there to ensure preventative and protective measures are put in place to reduce the stress factors causing the grief using the hierarchy of controls measures.

So.......in conclusion.........because there are too many factors which are ever changing regarding stress, in my opinion, it would be an impossible task to frame a specific stress Statute in Law, as it would have too many areas with pit-holes and could not be defined in a court of law. Too ambiguous to have a positive outcome in law.

Hope Paul's post and this helps a bit.