Your employer has a legal duty to protect you from stress at work, and HSE says that means doing a risk assessment and acting on it. If they do not, you can raise it with them informally and, if that does not work, raise a formal grievance. Depending on what happened, you may also have a claim for compensation, such as a personal injury claim, a constructive dismissal claim or a disability discrimination claim.
Key points
✓HSE says employers have a legal duty to protect workers from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it.
✓An employer with five or more workers is required by law to write the risk assessment down.
✓Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 a week or 80% of your normal weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks. Since 6 April 2026 it is paid from the first day of illness instead of the fourth.
✓A mental health problem can be a disability, and if it is, your employer must make reasonable adjustments.
✓For most tribunal claims you have 6 months minus 1 day if the problem happened on or after 1 October 2026, and 3 months minus 1 day if it happened before.
Your employer's legal duty of care
HSE defines stress as the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them. Stress is not an illness, but it can make you ill.
The main rules are:
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, section 2: every employer must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all their employees
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3: every employer must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees at work
Equality Act 2010: a mental health problem can be a disability, and if it is, your employer must make reasonable adjustments
Duty of care: employers must do all they reasonably can to support workers' health, safety and wellbeing, and must treat mental and physical health as equally important
Acas says the law on stress risk assessments applies to anyone with the legal status of employee, and that someone is not likely to be an employee if they are a casual worker or on a zero-hours contract.
HSE's Management Standards help identify and manage six areas of work design that can affect stress levels: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. HSE says employers may find them helpful.
This page covers Great Britain. Northern Ireland has its own health and safety and employment law, which this page does not cover.
Signs your employer is breaching their duty
Check what your employer has done against what the rules above expect of them:
There has been no stress risk assessment, although HSE says employers have a legal duty to do one
Your employer has five or more workers and the risk assessment was not written down
You have not been given the results of the risk assessment, which your employer has a legal duty to share with you
You told your employer you were experiencing work-related stress and they did not carry out an individual risk assessment
You are disabled and your employer failed to make reasonable adjustments, which is discrimination
HSE says it will not generally investigate individual cases of work-related stress, and it will not investigate if the concerns have not been raised with the employer.
What you should do, step by step
1
Talk to your manager
Talk to your manager as soon as you can. HSE says this gives them the chance to help and stop the situation getting worse.
2
Ask about the risk assessment
Your employer has a legal duty to assess the risks to your health from stress at work and share the results of any risk assessment with you. Acas says that if you tell them you are experiencing work-related stress, they should do an individual risk assessment. If you are not happy with how it was handled, raise it with your employer informally first. If that does not resolve the issue, you can raise a grievance.
3
See your GP
You can get a fit note from a GP or hospital doctor, registered nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist or physiotherapist. You must give your employer a fit note if you are off work for more than 7 days in a row, including non-working days.
4
Find out what support is available
The support employers offer might include counselling or mental health support through an employee assistance programme, a mental health peer support programme or employee support network, and occupational health. If the pressure is due to what your line manager is doing, find out what policies are in place. If there are none, you could talk to your trade union representative, worker representative, HR department, worker assistance programme or counselling service if your company has these, a first aider trained to support people experiencing mental health problems, or your GP.
5
Raise a formal grievance
You can raise a formal grievance if you feel raising it informally has not worked or you do not want it dealt with informally. Raise it as soon as you can.
6
Tell Acas before a tribunal claim
Before you make a claim to an employment tribunal, you must tell Acas, and you will usually need an early conciliation certificate for each respondent before you make a claim. Early conciliation is voluntary, and you and your employer can choose whether to take part. If you have questions about how early conciliation works, call the Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100.
Taking sick leave for work-related stress
If you are signed off sick:
Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 a week or 80% of your normal weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks, paid by your employer
Since 6 April 2026, SSP is paid from the first day of illness instead of the fourth day, and the lower earnings limit has been removed
You can get more than the statutory amount if your company has a sick pay scheme, so check your employment contract
Statutory holiday entitlement builds up while you are off sick, and any you cannot use because of illness can be carried over into the next leave year
Employees who are off work sick for more than 4 weeks may be considered long-term sick. As a last resort, employers can dismiss an employee who is long-term sick, but before they can do this they must consider if the employee can return to work, such as by working flexibly or part-time, or doing different or less stressful work, and consult the employee about when they could return to work and if their health will improve. An employee can take their case to an employment tribunal if they think they have been unfairly dismissed. See the guide to sick pay and the fit note guide for more.
Where possible, an employer should help a worker who is experiencing stress to stay in work, but taking time off might give someone the space and time to recover. While you are off, your employer should have a reasonable amount of contact with you, and you should agree how often you will keep in touch.
Your employer should talk to you when you return to work after time off with work-related stress. A return to work meeting is a chance to make sure you are ready, see if you need any support, agree a plan such as a phased return to work, and review or do a stress risk assessment.
Reasonable adjustments for mental health
Under section 6 of the Equality Act 2010, a person has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. The effect is long-term if it has lasted for at least 12 months, is likely to last for at least 12 months, or is likely to last for the rest of the person's life.
Someone with poor mental health can be considered disabled if it has a substantial adverse effect on their life, lasts or is expected to last at least 12 months, and affects their ability to do their normal day-to-day activities. Poor mental health can be considered a disability even if the person does not have symptoms all the time.
If you are disabled, your employer must not discriminate against you because of your disability and must make reasonable adjustments.
Acas gives these examples of reasonable adjustments for mental health:
More frequent, shorter breaks
Flexible hours
Reviewing tasks or deadlines to help you have a reasonable workload while managing your mental health
Reducing responsibilities that are more stressful, for example reducing phone calls or customer facing work
Moving you into a different role or department if your current job has a negative impact on your mental health
Allowing you to work from home to manage distractions or engage in activities that allow you to manage your mental health
Being flexible with trigger points for absence so that you are not disadvantaged by taking absence when you are unwell
Offering an extended phased return to support you to build up hours gradually and continue your recovery
A failure to comply with the duty to make reasonable adjustments is discrimination. If someone does not get the reasonable adjustments they need, they could make a claim to an employment tribunal.
Stress at work claims: what you can claim against your employer
The main stress at work claims against an employer are a personal injury claim, a constructive dismissal claim, a disability discrimination claim and a health and safety detriment claim. The table shows what each covers and its time limit.
The main routes are:
Claim
What it covers
Time limit
Personal injury (negligence)
An action for damages for negligence, nuisance or breach of duty where the damages include damages for personal injuries, which include any disease and any impairment of a person's physical or mental condition
England and Wales: three years from the date the cause of action accrued or from your date of knowledge if later. Scotland: three years after the date the injuries were sustained or, if later, the date you became aware, or could reasonably have become aware, of the relevant facts.
You resign because your employer has seriously breached your employment contract. You usually need to be an employee with 2 years' service, falling to six months for dismissals with an effective date of termination on or after 1 January 2027.
6 months minus 1 day if the problem happened on or after 1 October 2026, and 3 months minus 1 day if it happened before. It runs from the last day of your notice period, or the day you resigned if you did not give notice.
You are disabled and your employer discriminated against you, for example by failing to make a reasonable adjustment.
6 months minus 1 day if the problem happened on or after 1 October 2026, and 3 months minus 1 day if it happened before. It starts from the most recent date of discrimination you include in your claim.
Health and safety detriment
An employee has the right not to be subjected to any detriment for bringing to their employer's attention, by reasonable means, circumstances connected with their work which they reasonably believed were harmful or potentially harmful to health or safety, where there was no health and safety representative or committee or it was not reasonably practicable to raise the matter through one.
For most claims, 6 months minus 1 day if the problem happened on or after 1 October 2026, and 3 months minus 1 day if it happened before.
In England and Wales your date of knowledge is the date you first knew that the injury was significant, that it was attributable in whole or in part to the act or omission you say was negligent, and who the defendant was.
Going through grievance, disciplinary or appeal procedures does not change your time limit. If those procedures take a long time, you still need to notify Acas before your time limit runs out.
A constructive dismissal claim can be difficult to win at an employment tribunal, and resigning is a big step to take. GOV.UK says that if you do have a case for constructive dismissal, you should leave your job immediately, because your employer may argue that by staying you accepted the conduct or treatment. Read the guides to constructive dismissal and the employment tribunal before you decide.
The main stress at work claims against an employer are a personal injury claim, a constructive dismissal claim, a disability discrimination claim and a health and safety detriment claim. A personal injury claim is an action for damages, and personal injuries include any disease and any impairment of a person's physical or mental condition.
How long do I have to make a stress at work claim?
For a personal injury claim in England and Wales, the period is three years from the date the cause of action accrued or from your date of knowledge if later. For most tribunal claims you have 6 months minus 1 day if the problem happened on or after 1 October 2026, and 3 months minus 1 day if it happened before.
How much compensation can I claim in workplace stress claims?
GOV.UK says that if you get compensation from an employment tribunal, the amount can depend on the type of case, how much money you have lost because of the respondent's actions, and your age, length of service and salary. There are limits on certain cases. A personal injury claim is an action for damages, and personal injuries include any disease and any impairment of a person's physical or mental condition.
My employer says stress is not a health and safety issue, is that right?
No. HSE says employers have a legal duty to protect workers from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it. HSE will only consider investigating where it is evident that several employees are experiencing work-related stress or related ill health, and it will not generally investigate individual cases. It will not investigate if the concerns have not been raised with the employer and sufficient time has not elapsed for the employer to respond. Bullying and harassment should be referred to Acas.
Can I be dismissed for having work-related stress?
As a last resort, employers can dismiss an employee who is long-term sick, but before they can do this they must consider if the employee can return to work and consult the employee about when they could return to work and if their health will improve. An employee can take their case to an employment tribunal if they think they have been unfairly dismissed.
What is the difference between stress and a disability under the Equality Act?
Stress is not classed as a medical condition, but it can still be serious and cause, or make worse, other mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression. Someone with poor mental health can be considered disabled if it has a substantial adverse effect on their life and lasts, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.
My employer is not making the adjustments I asked for, what can I do?
Acas says early conciliation should not be your first step, and that before you notify Acas you should try to raise the problem informally or raise a formal grievance. At tribunal, the judge will usually expect you to show that you tried to resolve the dispute yourself. If you raise the problem with your employer first, this does not change the time limits.
Know Your Rights UK. "Stress at Work: Your Rights and Your Employer's Duties." Know Your Rights UK, https://www.knowyourrightsuk.com/employment/stress-at-work