For employers

PCBUs have a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of each worker while at work. Health includes physical and psychological health.

This means that PCBUs must ensure that psychosocial hazards at work are effectively managed.

The PCBU’s duty to workers includes ensuring the health and safety of workers from harmful acts from third parties, such as clients, visitors, or patients.

Examples of what the PCBU is required to do to manage psychosocial hazards include ensuring they provide and maintain:

• a safe working environment
• safe systems of work
• safe use, handling, and storage of equipment, structures and substances
• adequate facilities at work
• necessary information, training, instruction or supervision of workers, and
• conditions at the workplace are monitored to ensure any risks remain adequately controlled.

PCBUs must adopt a risk management process, including eliminating psychosocial risks, so far as is reasonably practicable, or if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate psychosocial risks, by minimising them.

PCBUs should follow a four-step risk management process to meet their health and safety obligations under the Code and Regulations:

1. Identify psychosocial hazards
2. Assess the risk
3. Control the risks
4. Review the controls

Part 3 of the Code provides detailed information about these steps for psychosocial hazards.

PCBUs must identify hazards that could lead to psychosocial risks and minimise them, so far is reasonably practicable.

Psychosocial hazards can arise from organisation-wide systems, work practices, work environments and workplace behaviours, or they can be specific to a task or job.

Psychosocial hazards can be identified by:

• talking and listening to workers
• inspecting your workplace
• taking note of how your workers interact
• reviewing reports and records, and
• using a survey tool to gather information from staff.

When identifying psychosocial hazards, workers and health and safety representatives (HSRs) (if applicable) must be consulted.

To help identify psychosocial hazards, PCBUs can observe the workplace. This includes observing how work is performed and how people interact with each other.

Things to look out for include:

• How is work performed, including the physical, mental and emotional demands of the tasks and activities? (e.g. are workers rushed? Is work delayed? Is there a work backlog?)
• How do workers, managers, supervisors and others interact and how are inappropriate behaviours or conflicts dealt with? (e.g. are workers, customers and clients respectful?)
• Are there problems with service delivery, poor relationships, the presence of emotional distress, or cultural or community issues that could lead to conflict or violence at work?
• Does the culture at work support or tolerate inappropriate behaviour? (e.g. are behaviours like name-calling; teasing; racist, sexual or gendered jokes or vilification; crude language; swearing; or hazing new or young workers ignored or tolerated?)
• Have any changes occurred at work which may affect psychological health? (e.g. are workers being adequately informed about organisational change?)
• Does the work environment create psychosocial hazards? (e.g. are workers isolated or exposed to biological hazards such as uncontrolled infectious pathogens or bodily fluids?)
• Does the nature of the work inherently involve psychosocial hazards and how frequently is this occurring? (e.g. how often are workers exposed to traumatic events?)
• What are the working arrangements? Do they pose psychosocial risks to workers and others? (e.g. are workers working alone, in contact with the public, or engaged in shift work or working after hours?)
• Does the workplace support behaviours that promote psychological health? (e.g. is work-life balance encouraged? Are reasonable working hours maintained? Is communication inclusive and respectful? Is return to work following injury proactive and supportive?)

PCBUs must consult workers when identifying hazards and assessing risks to health and safety.

Workers will generally be aware of aspects of work which create psychosocial hazards and may have suggestions on how to manage these hazards.

The way workers are consulted must be decided in conjunction with workers. If there is an agreed procedure for consultation, this procedure must be followed.

Once a PCBU has identified a psychosocial hazard, it needs to assess the risk it poses and decide how to control it. This will depend on:

• the severity of harm it could cause (from discomfort to serious injury to death)
• how likely that harm is to occur (from certain to unlikely to rare)
• what controls are already in place to reduce the risk of harm, and
• how urgently additional actions need to be taken.

A risk assessment should be carried out for any psychosocial hazards that have been identified where the risk of the hazard(s) or accepted control measures are not well known.

Part 3 of the Code has more information about how to conduct a risk assessment.

PCBUs need to put in place measures that either removes hazards or reduces them as effectively as possible. There are three possible levels of control:

• Level 1 - eliminate the hazard by removing the risk completely.
• Level 2 - eliminate as many of the risks associated with the hazard as possible, for example, substituting the hazard for a safer alternative, or isolating the hazard from people.
• Level 3 - rely on human behaviour and supervision to control the risk. This is the least effective way to reduce risk.

Part 3.3 of the Code has more information about how PCBUs can control the risk of psychosocial hazards.

Once control measures are implemented, they must be maintained and reviewed to ensure they remain effective over time.

This includes ensuring control measures remain:

• fit for purpose
• suitable for the nature and duration of the work, and
• are installed, set up and used correctly.

It is best practice to maintain and review control measures on a regular basis.

Keeping records of the risk management process may assist with demonstrating what has been done to comply with the WHS Act and WHS Regulation.

Parts 3.4 and 3.5 of the Code have helpful information about reviewing control measures and recording the risk management process.

Part 4 of Code has helpful information about the process to follow if a worker has an issue or makes a complaint.

PCBUs should:

• act promptly
• ensure immediate safety
• treat all matters seriously
• maintain confidentiality
• be neutral
• support all parties
• not victimise
• communicate process and outcomes
• keep records, and
• use a trauma-informed approach (e.g. being mindful that workplace systems recognise that workplace responses about psychosocial hazards can escalate or de-escalate distress in those with a history of trauma).

WHSQ is Queensland’s work health and safety regulator. WHSQ works with industry, businesses, and workers to create a safe and healthy culture in Queensland places of work.

WHSQ does this by:

• making sure work health and safety laws are followed
• investigating work-related fatalities and serious injuries
• taking legal action when work health and safety laws are broken, and
• educating employees and employers on their legal obligations.

WHSQ uses a range of tools to promote compliance with the legislation and ensure duty holders eliminate or minimise exposure to the risk of illness and injury.

WHSQ inspectors provide information and advice about how to comply with health and safety laws. Inspectors also conduct workplace visits to monitor and enforce compliance.

Yes, the Code and Regulations apply to PCBUs of all sizes covered by the WHS Act.

WHSQ provides a range of free resources to help PCBUs manage psychosocial risks.

These include:

• People at Work risk assessment survey - a free, validated psychosocial risk assessment survey available via a self-managed digital platform. The survey assesses several of the most common psychosocial hazards.
• Psychosocial risk assessment - a template for conducting a psychosocial risk assessment.
• Focus group guide - provides help on how to prepare and conduct a focus group, as well as how to analyse focus group data and report on findings.

The Code also includes a range of resources, such as case studies, examples of psychosocial hazards, example risk management measures, an example risk register, and an example work-related bullying policy.

Using other tools or methods for managing risks are also acceptable. It is up to the PCBU to decide which method to use, based on their circumstances. If a PCBU chooses a different approach, it needs to either give the same or a higher standard of protection than the Code.

A code of practice provides practical guidance for businesses on how to achieve health and safety standards required under the WHS Act. A code of practice also outlines effective ways to identify and manage risks. Under Queensland WHS laws, codes of practice are enforceable. Duty holders may follow another method, such as a technical or an industry standard, if it provides an equivalent or higher standard of work health and safety to the standard required in the code.

The ISO 45003 Standard (Occupational health and safety management - Psychological health and safety at work - Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks) provides organisations with guidelines for managing psychosocial risks in the workplace, as part of an occupational health and safety management system based on ISO45001 (Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems). While these standards may assist businesses to develop a quality framework for the management of risks in their workplace, they are not compulsory by law. If your organisation is small or lower risk, you may be able to demonstrate effective risk management with less formal management processes.

Businesses may choose to seek further guidance from the ISO standards or other resources to achieve compliance with their legal obligations (outlined within codes of practice relating to a particular hazard). The practical implications for businesses regarding interpretation, implementation (auditing and certification) must be considered for businesses looking to adopt this framework, to ensure their systems for managing workplace hazards and risks are appropriate for their organisation.