Central Safety Group Melbourne

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. 

 View Presentation Package
members only, please login first.

View all CSG posts

Where are the psychosocial safety regulations?

On the eve of National Safe Work Month, Victorians are justified in asking “Where the hell are the psychosocial safety regulations?”  

Over two years ago the Victorian Government was proud to be leading the pack of jurisdictions and various WorkSafes in promising amendments to the occupational health and safety (OHS) laws.  Now it is the last to introduce those amendments

In reality, those laws seem as far from introduction as ever.  The government has conducted two rounds of public consultations on the issue with the last ending early this year.  Since then WorkSafe representatives have pre-empted the inevitable question at their public appearances by saying, rightly, the “the laws are with the Minister” or “on the Minister’s desk”.  The delay is becoming negligent.

This delay is puzzling as the government had a major inquiry into Victoria’s Mental Health System and, although workplaces were on the periphery of consideration, there was an overlap.  The unions are in favour of psychosocial reform.  Business groups always argue against any new OHS regulations based on the spurious, rote reasons of increased cost of compliance.  But this whiney opposition is very weak when all other jurisdictions have resolved any concerns.  So why hasn’t Victoria?

It is highly likely that whatever draft regulatory amendments the government holds are out of date compared to the other States and Territories and a further cycle of consultation may be required.  All the while, workers are facing psychosocial hazards that their employers could be controlling.  Of course, employers should have been controlling these since the OHS duty of care in 1985, but many employers do not act on occupational hazards until they have to.  And in Victoria, they feel they don’t have to.

Remember this Minister’s delay on the elimination and management of psychosocial hazards at work, the next time any government representative says that “we give the safety of Victorians the highest priority”.  If that statement were true, the OHS laws would have been amended over 18 months ago and workers would have been safer.

Kevin Jones https://safetyatworkblog.com/