Airservices Australia v Ferrier

Airservices Australia and Mr Ferrier were the parties in this matter before the High Court of Australia. The dispute concerned Mr Ferrier's claim for damages for personal injury, specifically a psychiatric injury, allegedly sustained as a result of his employment as an air traffic controller. Mr Ferrier alleged that Airservices Australia had breached its duty of care to him by failing to take reasonable steps to prevent him from suffering psychiatric harm due to the stressful nature of his work.

The High Court was required to determine whether Airservices Australia owed Mr Ferrier a duty of care to prevent him from suffering psychiatric injury, and if so, whether that duty had been breached. Central to this was the question of whether the employer's knowledge of the risk of psychiatric injury to an employee was sufficient to establish a duty of care, and what constitutes reasonable steps in the context of managing workplace stress for an air traffic controller.

The Court affirmed that an employer owes a duty of care to its employees to take reasonable steps to protect them from foreseeable harm, including psychiatric injury. The majority reasoned that the employer's knowledge of the risk of psychiatric injury, or the means of acquiring such knowledge, was a crucial factor in establishing the existence of a duty of care. They held that the employer must take reasonable steps to prevent psychiatric injury where it is foreseeable that an employee might suffer such harm due to the nature of the work and the employee's particular circumstances. The Court considered the specific demands of air traffic control and the employer's awareness of the potential for stress-related illness among its controllers.

The High Court allowed the appeal in part, finding that while a duty of care was owed, the assessment of whether that duty had been breached required further consideration of the specific facts. The matter was remitted to the trial judge for a redetermination of the question of breach and damages.