Rethinking the work stress 'epidemic'

In July 1999 a British county court awarded former town hall worker Beverley Lancaster £67,000 in compensation

for a 'stress-related personal injury' caused by her employer's insistence that she relinquish her job as a

draughtswoman in favour of a more stressful position dealing with the public in a neighbourhood housing office. The ruling was the first of its kind in a British court, although the Trade Union Congress reported that a further 460 cases were before the courts, and a further 7,000 cases were being investigated by UNISON, Mrs Lancaster's union.