Stress: helping branches help our members

The stress epidemic in public services is sadly an all-too-familiar story

Members rightly look to UNISON for care and support when they experience harm from stress, but we also need to offer realistic expectations of the process for those who want to bring a claim for personal injury.

The union introduced a stress claims checklist in 2017 for branches to run through with members, making sure that key criteria are fulfilled so claims with a real chance of success are put forward for Thompsons Solicitors to assess.

This has helped us to focus our resources better, manage members’ expectations and streamline the process.

However, the union is introducing one more change: the completed checklist must also be attached to the paperwork sent for legal advice.

As a belt and braces approach, we are asking reps and activists who are helping members with stress claims to adopt a simple formula: consider, complete, include.

There are rare cases where members suffer post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of an incident at work or work-related stress due to a breach of the Data Protection Act.

These should be submitted as personal injury cases via UNISONdirect, rather than using this stress claims process.

The stress claims protocol pack has been updated to make these changes clear, and there will be further regional training sessions so all branches feel confident to ‘consider, complete, include’.

You can download all the updated stress claims documents below: