Every employer in the UK has a legal duty of care to the people who work for them. This duty is not optional and cannot be contracted out of. Where it is breached and an employee suffers harm as a result — whether physical injury, psychological harm, or financial loss — the employer may be liable to pay compensation. This guide explains what the duty of care means in practice, what it covers, when it is breached, and what an employee can do about it.
Our solicitors in Bolton advise employees and former employees on claims arising from an employer’s failure to meet the standard of care required by law.
What Is an Employer’s Duty of Care?
The employer’s duty of care is a legal obligation that requires employers to take reasonable steps to protect the health, safety, and wellbeing of their employees. It exists in both statute and common law.
At common law, the duty was established in cases going back to the nineteenth century and has been developed significantly by the courts since then. It requires employers to provide competent staff, adequate equipment, a safe place of work, and a safe system of work.
In statute, the primary legislation is the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which imposes a general duty on employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare of all employees. A wide range of secondary regulations supplement this duty in specific areas — including the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002.
What Does the Duty of Care Cover?
The duty of care is broad and covers several distinct obligations:
Physical Safety
The most obvious element of the duty is protecting employees from physical injury at work. This includes maintaining equipment and machinery, providing personal protective equipment where required, assessing and managing risks, and ensuring the workplace itself is safe. Where an employee is injured at work due to an employer’s failure in any of these areas, the employer may be liable.
Psychological Health and Wellbeing
The duty of care extends beyond physical safety to include mental health. Employers have a duty to take reasonable steps to avoid exposing employees to psychiatric injury, including stress-related illness caused by excessive workload, bullying, harassment, or other workplace factors.
The leading case of Hatton v Sutherland [2002] established that employers are only liable for psychiatric injury where it was foreseeable — meaning the employer knew, or should have known, that the employee was at risk of psychiatric harm. An employee who raises concerns about stress, workload, or mental health difficulties with their employer is putting the employer on notice — after that point, liability for failing to act becomes much harder to avoid.
Safe Systems of Work
An employer must have proper systems and procedures in place to reduce the risk of harm to employees. This includes risk assessments, proper training, written procedures for hazardous tasks, and supervision of those systems. A system that exists on paper but is not properly implemented or enforced will not discharge the employer’s duty.
Competent Fellow Employees
An employer is responsible for ensuring that employees are properly trained and competent to do their jobs, and that they do not pose a risk to their colleagues. Where an employee is injured by the negligent act of a colleague — for example a forklift driver who injures a colleague through careless driving — the employer is vicariously liable for that act.
Harassment and Bullying
Employers have a duty to prevent harassment and bullying in the workplace. Where harassment occurs and the employer knew or should have known about it but failed to take adequate steps to prevent or address it, they may be liable for the harm caused. This duty interacts with the employer’s obligations under the Equality Act 2010 where the harassment is related to a protected characteristic.
When Is the Duty of Care Breached?
The duty is to take reasonable steps — not to guarantee the safety of employees in all circumstances. Whether the duty has been breached depends on:
- Whether the risk of harm was foreseeable
- What steps a reasonable employer would have taken to address that risk
- Whether those steps were taken
A large, well-resourced employer may be held to a higher standard than a small business with limited resources, because the steps that are reasonably practicable depend in part on what the employer can reasonably be expected to do. But no employer — however small — is exempt from the basic requirements of the duty.
What Can an Employee Claim?
Where an employer has breached their duty of care and an employee has suffered harm as a result, the employee can bring a civil claim for compensation. This can include:
- Damages for personal injury — physical or psychological injury caused by the breach
- Loss of earnings — both past lost earnings and future loss of earning capacity where the injury affects the employee’s ability to work
- Medical expenses — the cost of private treatment, rehabilitation, and any ongoing care required
- Pain and suffering — general damages for the physical and psychological impact of the injury
Claims for psychiatric injury caused by workplace stress or harassment can be particularly significant in terms of value, because they frequently result in long periods off work and, in serious cases, permanent changes to earning capacity.
Professional Negligence in an Employment Context
Where an employee has received professional advice — from an employment solicitor, a union representative acting in a professional capacity, or an HR consultant — that falls below the standard required, and that advice causes them to lose rights or suffer financial loss, a professional negligence claim may arise alongside or instead of a direct claim against the employer.
The most common example is where an employee is advised to sign a settlement agreement without being properly advised on its terms and implications. A solicitor who signs off on a settlement agreement must certify that they have given the employee independent legal advice — if that advice was negligent, the employee may have a claim against the solicitor for any loss caused.
How Hi Solicitors Can Help
Whether you have been physically injured at work, suffered psychiatric harm through workplace stress or bullying, or received negligent professional advice in an employment context, our solicitors in Bolton can advise on your options and represent you in pursuing a claim.
Call 01204 371 414 for a free initial consultation. We are here to help.
187b Derby St, Bolton, BL3 6JT · hisolicitors.co.uk
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does the duty of care apply to all employees?
Yes. The duty applies to all employees regardless of their role, seniority, or the size of the employer. It also extends in certain circumstances to workers who are not employees in the strict legal sense — including agency workers and some self-employed contractors — where the employer exercises sufficient control over how they work.
Q: Can you claim for stress caused by work?
Yes, in appropriate circumstances. An employer who knows or ought to know that an employee is at risk of psychiatric injury through work-related stress and fails to take reasonable steps to address it can be liable for the resulting harm. The key is foreseeability — if the employer was not on notice that the employee was struggling, liability is harder to establish. Raising concerns formally with your employer is important both for your own wellbeing and for any future claim.
Q: What is the difference between a personal injury claim and an employer liability claim?
They are the same thing in the employment context. A claim against an employer for a workplace injury is a personal injury claim — it is brought under the law of negligence and seeks compensation for the injury and its consequences. The employer’s duty of care is the basis of the claim.
Q: Can you claim if a colleague caused your injury?
Yes. Employers are vicariously liable for the negligent acts of their employees carried out in the course of their employment. If a colleague’s negligence causes you injury at work, your claim is against the employer — not the colleague personally.
Q: What is a settlement agreement and can I be pressured into signing one?
A settlement agreement is a legally binding contract between employer and employee under which the employee agrees to waive their right to bring certain employment claims in return for a payment. You cannot be forced to sign one, and before signing you must receive independent legal advice from a qualified solicitor or other adviser. If that advice was negligent, you may have a claim against the adviser for any loss caused.