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Overriding duties

At common law, an employer is under a duty to take reasonable care of the health and safety of its employees in all the circumstances of the case so as not to expose them to an unnecessary risk.

This duty of care extends to the employee’s physical and mental health. For further guidance on occupational stress cases, see Practice Notes: Occupational stress—introduction and Occupational stress—establishing liability.

The common law duty is a personal, non-delegable duty and cannot be discharged by entrusting the safety of one employee to another or to an independent contractor.

In a case where the claimant was the sole director and majority shareholder of the defendant company, the defendant was found to be liable for the negligence of an independent contractor on the basis that the case fell within the second broad category of non-delegable duty in Woodland v Essex County Council, ie within the employer—employee category.

The standard of care is determined by requirements of reasonableness. It requires the employer to assess the potential risk of injury as against