During National Safe Work Month (with the month’s theme being “Safety is Everyone’s Business”), Safe Work Australia have been focusing on a different topic each week – one of which is Psychosocial Hazards. Though the Psychosocial Hazard Code of Practice was introduced in July 2022, and changes to regulations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 were enforced from 25th December 2023, many people are still not aware of their responsibilities when it comes to managing these types of hazards in the workplace.
Awareness and education around psychosocial hazards and the part that workers & employers play in identifying and managing them is often a topic of conversation in training sessions and workshops delivered by Limestone Coast Solutions. In keeping with safety promotion for the month, we wanted to highlight what a psychosocial hazard is & what obligations workplaces have to eliminate or minimise them.
What is a Psychosocial Hazard?
According to Safe Work Australia, a psychosocial hazard is anything that could cause psychological harm (e.g. harm someone’s mental health)1. Common psychosocial hazard at work can include:
- High or low job demands
- Low job control
- Poor support
- Lack of role clarity
- Poor organisational change management
- Inadequate reward and recognition
- Poor organisational justice
- Traumatic events or material
- Remote or isolated work
- Poor physical environment
- Violence and aggression
- Bullying
- Harassment, including sexual and gender-based harassment, and
- Conflict or poor workplace relationships and interactions
Psychosocial hazards are created by:
- the design or management of work
- a work environment
- plant at the workplace, or
- workplace interactions or behaviours2
Do Psychosocial Hazards Cause Harm?
Yes. Psychosocial hazards can create stress, which causes physical and psychosocial harm. While stress itself is not considered an injury, high, frequent, and/or prolonged stress over time can cause harm.
Psychosocial harm may develop into or contribute to pre-existing psychological conditions (including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sleep disorders) or physical conditions (including musculoskeletal injuries, chronic disease, or fatigue related injuries).
Different psychosocial hazards may combine to create new, altered or increased risks. One may not be enough on its own to create a psychosocial risk, but it may do so if others are added; for example, an increased workload combined with a lack of support or not being able to take regular breaks.
Additionally, workers’ compensation claims for injuries resulting from psychosocial hazards at work are increasing – in 2021-22, serious claims for mental health conditions in resulted in a total of 584,029 working weeks of time lost from work. Mental health conditions accounted for 9% of all serious worker’s compensation claims (a 36.9% increase since 2017-18), and both the median time lost and median compensation paid for mental health conditions was more than 3-4 times greater than those for all physical injuries and illnesses in 2020-21.3
What Can Employers & Workers Do?
With reports of stress and burnout increasing year after year, psychosocial hazards should be taken as seriously (if not more so) as physical hazards in the workplace.
As with physical hazards, employers have obligations under the Work Health & Safety Act 2012 and the Work Health & Safety Regulations 2012 to eliminate or minimise psychosocial hazards so far as reasonably practicable. They have a duty of care to all workers, and must apply the same risk management process that they would use to manage physical hazards and risks in mandatory consultation with their workers.
Workers can help identify aspects of their work or environment that may cause or expose them to psychosocial hazards. They may have suggestions or be open to discussion and consultation with employers and managers to come up with solutions in managing these hazards. Both employers and workers should also work together to ensure that there is a safe, open and understanding place and time to open up conversation regarding psychosocial hazards.
The way that organisations choose to manage psychosocial hazards may differ, but the process of managing the risks benefits everyone in the workplace.