Australia's Work Health and Safety laws are set to undergo significant changes, as WHS ministers agree to amend incident notification provisions. In a recent announcement from Safe Work Australia, changes are being introduced to address the gaps in the current notification requirements, with a particular focus on psychosocial hazards and psychological harm.
The new provisions, expected to be fully drafted by early 2025, will require a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) to immediately notify safety regulators of non-injury-causing acts of violence and suicides potentially linked to workplace issues.
These changes follow a review of the notification provisions conducted by Safe Work in June 2021 and September 2022, prompted by a recommendation from Marie Boland's 2018 independent review of the national model WHS regime. Boland had emphasised the need for provisions to cover psychological injuries and incidents emerging from work practices, industries, and arrangements.
At this stage, the proposed changes will likely include:
- PCBUs must immediately notify regulators of any work-related or suspected work-related suicide or attempted suicide, even if the incident does not directly arise from business conduct but has potential links to work or the work environment;
- Incidents of workplace violence that do not result in serious physical injury but pose serious physical or psychological risks must be reported;
- Serious work-related injuries and illnesses leading to an absence of 15 or more consecutive days must be notified;
- The requirement to notify a greater range of dangerous incidents involving the fall of a person, electrical hazards and mobile plant; and
- The requirement to notify all serious injuries and illnesses including serious head injuries, serious crush injuries and serious bone fractures.
It is important to note that any changes will not take effect in a jurisdiction until implemented in the WHS laws of each relevant jurisdiction.
With WHS Regulators soon to have greater oversight of psychosocial injuries and illnesses, these amendments emphasise the importance of having robust systems in place to manage psychosocial hazards in the workplace.
We would like to thank Tilly Thomas-Earle for her contribution to this article.
