Hefty damages ruling lesson for firms

Memo managers: Read the Health and Safety in Employment Act. And if you already have, read it again.

That's the lesson from the landmark $800,000 damages won by former probation officer Chris Gilbert after his resignation from the Department of Corrections for stress-related illness.

It is certain to launch a flood of similar claims.

Mr Gilbert said he was forced to retire from his job with the Department of Corrections after contracting coronary artery disease. His lawyer's argument was based on two counts.

First, that the department had breached the express and implied terms of his employment contract and second, that he was the victim of unjustifiable constructive dismissal.

The award to Mr Gilbert, who had sought $900,000, was more than three times the size of the $242,000 won by the police videographer George Brickell.

"The central theme to both decisions is that employers have a duty to minimise stress in the workplace, and to ensure the physical and psychological safety of employees," warns law firm Bell Gully. "The decisions also make it clear that the definition of harm under the Health and Safety in Employment Act includes mental and emotional harm."

Many employees in numerous industries could easily put themselves in Mr Gilbert's position. He argued he worked in a stressful environment, he was overworked because the department failed to fill vacant probation officer positions, and although he had to take time off for ill-health the department still failed to address the problems.

It was these factors which caused the coronary artery disease and physical collapse which, Mr Gilbert argued, forced him to resign.

In dismissing every single one of the department's arguments in defence, Judge Graeme Colgan said it had failed to identify stress as a hazard, failed to monitor employees' health for stress, and failed to minimise Mr Gilbert's exposure to stress.