Stress payout is 'a wake up call for employers'

Trade union and human resources representatives said training and redeployment were increasingly important issues as councils faced with inadequate cash supplies decided to restructure or transfer their homes.

Their comments followed Birmingham Country Court's decision to make legal history by awarding former housing officer Beverley Lancaster £67,491 compensation for personal injury caused by the stress of her work.

Lancaster said the award, and Birmingham Council's admission of liability, would serve as a warning to other employers. "I felt everything I did was right. The council made promises to me and they failed me", she said after the hearing.

As reported in Housing Today last week Lancaster was redeployed from her position as a senior draughtswoman in the architecture department to procedures officer in 1990, then as housing officer at the council's Sutton Coldfield neighbourhood office in 1993.

But she did not receive adequate training and could not cope with the stress of dealing with disgruntled and sometimes hostile tenants.

She was retired on medical grounds after 26 years' service.

The payout, the first to be decided by a county court judge in such a case, covers loss of wages, future loss of earnings and present and future prescription charges.

Public sector union Unison said there were currently 7,000 stress related cases on its books.

Unison HA branch secretary Steve Wilkinson said the government's strict stance on funding for housing meant councils were having to turn to staff reorganisation or transfers to housing associations to cope.

"This whole issue is a wake up call to employers to get it right when they want to bring change about in the delivery of services", he said.

Elaine Green, director of human resources at Paddington Churches HA, said: "It is your own aptitude for a job that is important as well as your training. There are particular skills needed in all front line jobs although I would not want just to pick on housing."

A Chartered Institute of Housing spokeswoman said: "If employers are aware of a stressful environment they should look at the range of options available such as line management, internal monitoring, training and employee support schemes."

Birmingham Council has reviewed and revised its personnel and management procedures.