The AIHS will be publishing a series of news stories through October to support the four themes of National Safe Work Month. The second week (6-13 October, encompassing World Mental Health Day) focuses on psychosocial hazards and looks at how to identify and manage psychosocial hazards.

Psychosocial hazards are not distinctly separate from physical hazards, according to Safe Work Australia CEO, Marie Boland, who said the best safety outcomes are achieved when organisations manage psychosocial and physical risks collectively.

“This means organisations can extend their existing risk management systems and processes to address psychosocial hazards,” Boland said.

When organisations step through the risk management process, supported by good consultation, Boland explained that they can make significant progress toward creating a healthy and safe workplace.

“Unfortunately, we are still hearing of some organisations investing only in mental health initiatives that don’t address the psychosocial risks arising from the work, but instead seek to change the individual – wellbeing initiatives like fruit bowls, yoga and resilience training,” she said.

“While there can be value in these initiatives, they don’t address the risks arising from the work and don’t help organisations meet their WHS duties.”

Boland explained that the first step and a common challenge in managing psychosocial risks is identifying the hazards.

“Most people are familiar with bullying and high work demands but less familiar with other psychosocial hazards like poor support or low job control. To compound this, when workers raise psychosocial risks, they may not use WHS language,” said Boland, who noted that workers might talk about their exposure to psychosocial hazards in different ways.

Safe Work Australia also provides a list of psychosocial hazards that may arise at work which PCBUs can use to start a conversation and help identify psychosocial hazards. Organisations with 20 or more workers can also use the People at Work tool, which is a free and validated psychosocial risk assessment survey.

The model Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work also provides practical guidance on how employers and organisations can meet their WHS duties.

“Psychosocial risks are not new and nor is the duty to manage them, however, changes to the model WHS Regulation in 2022 clarified existing requirements,” Boland said.

Employers and organisations must now consider a range of relevant matters when controlling psychosocial risks, such as the duration, frequency and severity of exposure, how work is designed and managed, and workplace interactions and behaviours.

Boland added that a key objective of the review of incident notification provisions in the model WHS Act – which was a recommendation from the 2018 Review of the model WHS laws – was to ensure WHS regulators have appropriate visibility of serious work-related psychological harm.

Recently, WHS ministers agreed to a range of recommendations to improve the incident notification provisions in the model WHS Act, and Boland said Safe Work Australia is now working with the Parliamentary Counsel’s Committee to progress drafting amendments to the model WHS Act, with the aim of finalising these amendments by early 2025.

WHS ministers agreed to capture both serious work-related psychological harm, and exposures to psychosocial hazards that create a serious risk to health and safety. This includes notification of:

• work-related violent incidents that expose a person to a serious risk to their physical or psychological health and safety
• suicide or attempted suicide of a worker where there are indications of a potential link to work
• a worker’s absence from work for 15 or more consecutive calendar days due to work-related psychological or physical harm.

“However, it is important to note that any changes will not take effect in a jurisdiction until implemented in the WHS laws of the jurisdiction,” said Boland.

“Detailed guidance will be developed in advance of implementation so that duty holders have a clear understanding of what is and is not notifiable and can make any necessary adjustment to their internal processes.”