An employer's duty of care in respect of psychiatric injury from workplace bullying is engaged only when psychiatric injury to the particular employee is reasonably foreseeable, assessed by reference to the nature and extent of the work and signs given by the employee. Complaints about interpersonal friction and work management disputes between partners of equal standing, without indication of health risk, do not engage the duty. The first indication of health impact (here, approximately 30 October 2003) is the critical trigger. A case pleaded on actual harassment cannot be recharacterised on appeal as one based on perceived harassment.
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