News and Publications

Last year WorkSafe announced a change in focus, revealing it would be shifting away from a focus on psychosocial risk management and instead pursue addressing catastrophic serious harm in particular industries with the government promising to simplify health and safety laws,

This approach departs from what other similar jurisdictions are doing overseas. There is a growing body of case law in Australia and the UK for successful prosecutions in this space, for example, where WorkSafe in New Zealand has to date not prosecuted for this.

However, mental health management is still a crucial consideration for employers, as demonstrated by a recent significant award by the Employment Court for mental health harm personal grievance claims.

In Cronin-Lampe v Melville High School [2023] NZEmpC 221 the employees were counsellors who assisted students, staff and the wider community during a crisis response relating to 32 deaths in the community by student suicides, fatal crashes, terminal illness, and murder. They claimed they were overworked, under resourced, under supervised, and worked in an environment that strained professional relationships. The employees expressed their inability to cope with the high workload many times. The Employment Court found that the School knew or ought to have known about the impact the Cronin-Lampes’ work was having on them as the risk of workplace stress was clear and foreseeable. It gave rise to an obligation by the employer to be proactive in identifying potential hazards, including mental fatigue and traumatic shock. The Court awarded $130,000 for distress to compensate for past, present, and ongoing mental harm suffered by Mrs Cronin-Lampe and $97,500 for Mr Cronin-Lampe. In considering the award for personal grievances, the Court assessed this was in Band 3 and calculated as being $85,000 for Mrs Cronin-Lampe and $63,750 for Mr Cronin-Lampe.

Mr and Mrs Cronin-Lampe were awarded almost $1.8 million collectively for the extreme trauma suffered throughout their employment awarded based on breach of contract for health and safety obligations and personal grievances for unjustified disadvantage.

While this is an extreme case, it does show the courts willingness to enforce employer obligations to protect their employees’ health and safety, within the employment jurisdiction.

Message to employers

We are seeing an increase in personal grievance claims referencing mental harm caused by their work and failure by the employer to appropriately address this.  We find employers are commonly exposed in that they do not have a plan in place to manage risks arising from work that can cause mental harm. Therefore, employers need to be thinking about ways to identify, manage and prevent the risk of mental harm.

The best way to ensure you support a mentally healthy workplace is to have comprehensive health and safety management systems alongside robust Anti-Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination and Wellbeing Policies to be able to rely on and refer to.

If you require assistance to improve your businesses approach to mental wellbeing, our Mental Health and Wellbeing Toolkit is a great place to start as it provides employers with guidance on dealing with psychosocial hazards in the workplace (i.e., bullying, harassment, work-related stress).

The toolkit is available for a fixed price of $2,500 + GST, and includes:

• Risk Assessment Template and Guidance for Psychosocial Hazards;
• Mental Health and Wellbeing policy, covering stress management, fatigue and steps that can be taken to identify and manage mental health risks in the workplace; and
• Anti-Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination Policy, setting out definitions for each of these terms, examples of unacceptable behaviours and a process to follow where an incident arises.

Feel like you might need some training in this area? Our team can also offer a one-hour training session, either in person or virtually at a cost of $1,500 plus GST, covering:

• An overview of your mental health and wellbeing obligations, including documentation and reporting;
• How to identify psychosocial risks;
• Awareness of what constitutes bullying and harassment;
• What practical steps should be taken;
• How to manage employees and what support can be offered; and
• Practical tips on how to manage conflict in the workplace.

Disclaimer: We remind you that while this article provides commentary on employment law, health and safety and immigration topics, it should not be used as a substitute for legal or professional advice for specific situations. Please seek legal advice from your lawyer for any questions specific to your workplace.