The essential facts on Australia’s psychosocial safety legislations and regulations
“In 2024 every CEO and Executive needs to understand their duties and get psychosocial risks on their radar,” says National Psychosocial Safety Network Chair Martyn Campbell . "The leadership of managing psychosocial risk must come from the top.”
Safe Work Australia released its ‘Model Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work’ in November 2022—identifying a range of workplace psychosocial hazards and requiring organisations to be active in preventing psychosocial risk and harm. On 1 April 2023, amended Work Health and Safety Regulations implemented progressively by the states and territories require Australian employers to implement control measures for psychosocial risks.
Each state and territory has produced its own code of practice or legislative amendment in response:
New South Wales has the ‘Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work’
Queensland has the ‘Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice 2022’
ACT has the ‘Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice)' that became effective 27 Nov 2023
Western Australia has the ‘Mentally Healthy Workplaces Codes of Practice’
Tasmania has ‘Managing psychosocial hazards at work’
South Australia has the ‘Work Health and Safety (Psychosocial Risks) Amendment Regulations 2023’
Northern Territory has approved the ‘Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work’
Victoria has ‘Occupational Health and Safety Amendment (Psychological Health) Regulations’ and it still consulting with a view to amending its legislation.
Alongside these regulatory changes, 2022 amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 establish a positive duty of care to eliminate sexual harassment and sex discrimination in the workplace. It requires employers to be active in preventing incidents, rather than simply responding post-incident.
Martyn Campbell says psychosocial safety is not new.
“It's been with us since work itself, but it is a topical safety risk that affects many people and can, in many cases, be more damaging than a physical injury," says Martyn.
The research shows that psychosocially safe workers and workplaces are more productive, so it makes sense to make the improvements towards better work and comply with the new legal duties. Failure to do so places companies, executives and senior leaders at risk of prosecution and personal fines for non-compliance of the new psychosocial laws.
"Some Workers comp data shows a steady increase in psychosocial claims, with the average cost per claim ($58,615 in the last reporting period) being 3 to 4 times higher than a physical injury, with the worker taking 4 to 5 times longer to return to work, if they ever do! This affects not only the worker, but organisational morale and workers compensation levy."
In Ai Group’s 2023 CEO Survey, 78 per cent of businesses reported an operational impact from staff mental health issues.
All organisations need to be aware of their psychosocial safety gaps and strengths which is why the NPSN has created a Gaps and Strengths Analysis tool. This check is an important first step towards creating better working environments for all employees and ultimately better business outcomes.