Speaker: Dr Natassia (Tas) Goode, Director, Psychological Health Division, WorkSafe Victoria
Working with the new psychosocial regulations
The large turnout of both financial members and non-members to this presentation confirmed what we already suspected: this topic is of great interest to the OHS community. The small room was full and the Zoom was overflowing.
Dr Natassia (Tas) Goode coped well with the few technical hitches we experienced as she discussed changes to the OHS Act that strengthen and clarify the need for employers to manage both physical and psychological health through the introduction of the Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 which came into effect on 1 December last year.
Tas is Director of the new Psychological Health Division at WorkSafe Victoria, so we were privileged to have this opportunity to hear from such a high-level representative from the Regulator.
When discussing risk management there was no real new information - assessment must be proactive, organisation-wide and include consultation with employees. A bullying case study was used to demonstrate the risk management process, although fatigue was specifically mentioned in inspector site visits. The 16 psychosocial hazards listed are consistent with the Safe Work Australia list.
Of more interest was hearing about WorkSafe’s compliance and enforcement approach and the role of inspectors. It was good to see the wide range of levers available to inspectors to educate people and influence change with a strong emphasis on the provision of information and resources.
Tas stressed that, where surveys are used, they must be validated. She referred to a list of free validated surveys, but emphasised that they should not be the only form of consultation. The topic of surveys came up during the extensive and lively discussion that followed the presentation –all of this is included in the recording of the event.
Tas outlined a whole range of FREE resources, tools and support available from WorkSafe Victoria for every range of business. She also talked about WorkSafe grants for industry trials and communities of practice, as well as a free time-limited program for 300 SMEs. Get in quickly!
Financial members may also be interested to re-visit our presentation from May 2024, where a WorkSafe panel discussed Psychological health & safety at work (login first).
Our thanks to Tas and to WorkSafe Victoria for providing this speaker and for their ongoing support as a corporate member of CSG.
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