Last week, I attended a webinar on psychological safety that confirmed all of my worst fears about the Human Resources approach to addressing psychosocial factors and mental health at work.
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Category: mental-health
When Safe Work Month Shrinks and Psychosocial Hazards Expand
WorkSafe Victoria used to launch National Safe Work Month (or Safe Work Week as it started out) in a big way in Melbourne. They tried something similar when it relocated to Geelong, but this year, there was nothing of the same magnitude. There was some strong publicity benefit from having a big half- to full-day event at the start, but apparently, there was no additional benefit beyond that.
I would argue that the big event for this year’s safety month is the “Psychological Health Regulations: A focus on risk management” webinar on October 27, 2025. The new regulations and Compliance Code are what everyone seems to be talking about. For contrast, I have reviewed some of the presentations from the opening of WorkSafe Week in October 2012 by WorkSafe and VECCI.
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Workplace safety reform is happening but you probably won’t hear about it in the headlines
Occupational health and safety (OHS) can feel like a humdrum career when working in a low-risk, well-managed organisation. But the wheels of change roll on. Here’s a quick sample of some of that activity over the last week or so that you are unlikely to see elsewhere.
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Culture is the New Compliance in Victoria’s Psychological Health Code
The most significant challenges for employers in Victoria’s new OHS (Psychological Health) Regulations, supported by a new Compliance Code, are likely to be fostering a strong workplace safety culture. Occupational health and safety (OHS) advocates have been emphasising the importance of culture for several decades now (Sociologists examined it decades before). It appears that we will be hearing a great deal more about culture for some time to come, but what is expected of employers?
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Polishing What Exists: Making Sense of the New Psych Safety Code
Prominent occupational health and safety (OHS) lawyers Dale McQualter and Catherine Dunlop have just concluded the first of two online seminars about Victoria’s new psychological/psychosocial regulations and compliance code. Many employers will have a lot of work to do to comply, but the overall sense was one of reassurance.
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Victoria’s Psych Safety Code identifies preventions, and HR help will be needed
The release of new psychological safety workplace regulations and guidance in Victoria is a big thing. Partly because this closes the gap, with similar occupational health and safety (OHS) regulations now in place throughout Australia. Partly because Victoria was an early advocate for changes to these workplace hazards, and the government sat on its hands with this issue for far too long. (No one really knows why)
A quick read of the Compliance Code suggests that many of these hazards are unlikely to be controlled without the cooperation of Human Resources (HR) personnel. This might be the biggest challenge to achieving change and preventing harm.
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Old news is new news
Recently, parliamentary workplaces in the United Kingdom and Australia have had scandals about inappropriate behaviour – COVID-era parties and sexual harassment and assault, respectively. Official inquiries have repeatedly identified that Ministers and parliamentarians are overwhelmed with paperwork and expectations of being contactable 24/7. These do not excuse poor, unsuitable or criminal behaviour, but they are part of poor work design and contribute to poor psychological health and can be improved. But overwork in parliament is not a new phenomenon.
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