No ‘injury to feelings’ under Working Time Regulations

An employee has lost her claim for compensation for injury to feelings under the Working Time Regulations 1998.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that such compensation was confined to incidents of discrimination.

The case involved a woman who brought a claim against her employer for failure to allow her rest breaks as required by the regulations. The Employment Tribunal upheld her claim and awarded her £1,220 compensation for pecuniary loss.

However, it rejected her claim that she should also receive compensation for injury to feelings because of the way the case had been handled by the employer.

That decision has been upheld by the EAT. It said that the tribunal had been right to hold that compensation for injury to feelings was confined to discrimination cases.

It also added that in discrimination cases, compensation for injury to feelings was based on the effect on the claimant, not the fault of the perpetrator. Injury to health and injury to feelings were both based on the injury suffered, with no award made if no injury was suffered.

Please contact Robert Bedford if you would like more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of employment law.