Buddy says: Yes.  Employers are under a common law duty to take reasonable care for the health and safety of employees in the workplace.  A breach of this duty gives rise to a claim for personal injury against their employer, and the success of their claim depends on whether the employee can show that: 

• The employer has breached this duty of care
• It was reasonably foreseeable that an injury would result from the breach; and
• Loss in the form of personal injury has occurred, which can be physical and/or mental.

Employer information:

It is an implied term of every employment contract that the employer will take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of its employees at work and the scope of this duty is potentially very wide.  As part of the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence, the employer should act fairly during an ongoing employment relationship; this extends to investigations and even the steps an employer takes leading up to a dismissal, for example, a suspension, but not the manner of the dismissal itself.

In the recent case of Deadman v Bristol City Council [2007] EWCA Civ 822 the employee's stress arose from the employer's manner of conducting an investigation of sexual harassment against the employee, and informing him of a renewed investigation by leaving a letter on his desk.  The Court of Appeal upheld the Council's appeal and overturned the High Court's decision that this conduct of the employer amounted to breaches of the contract of employment which caused the employee's illness.  The Court of Appeal held that there was no contractual term to act sensitively and in this case the fact that the employee would suffer psychiatric illness as he did was not reasonably foreseeable.  Accordingly any damage flowing from the Council's breach of contract in this respect was too remote in law to be recoverable.