Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work) Code of Practice 2024

The Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work) Code of Practice 2024 is an approved code of practice made under section 274 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. The Code gives practical guidance on how to achieve the standards of work health and safety required under the WHS Act and the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 for psychosocial hazards and risks at work.

For business owners and managers, the starting point is simple. Under the WHS Act, health means both physical and psychological health. So if your business already has WHS systems for physical hazards, this Code explains how those systems should also deal with work-related psychological harm and the physical harm that can flow from psychosocial hazards.

The foreword also explains the Code's legal status. Following an approved code of practice will assist a duty holder to achieve compliance with the WHS Act and WHS Regulations in relation to the subject matter of the code. But it is not the only possible path. Compliance may also be achieved by following another method if that method provides an equivalent or higher standard of work health and safety than the code.

That flexibility should not be mistaken for low importance. The foreword says codes of practice are admissible in court proceedings under the WHS Act and WHS Regulations. Courts may regard a code as evidence of what is known about a hazard, risk, risk assessment or risk control, and may rely on the code in determining what is reasonably practicable. An inspector may also refer to an approved code of practice when issuing an improvement or prohibition notice.

The Code also says references to legal requirements are included for convenience only and should not be relied on in place of the full text of the WHS Act or WHS Regulations. In other words, it is a practical guide with real legal weight, but it is still sensible to check the legislation itself before making decisions on a live issue.

The Code says it is intended to be read by a person conducting a business or undertaking, usually called a PCBU. It provides practical guidance to PCBUs on how to manage psychosocial health and safety risks at work. It applies to the performance of work and to all workplaces covered by the WHS Act.

This scope point matters. This page is about the federal WHS Act 2011 and the federal Code only. Businesses should first check whether their operations are actually covered by the Commonwealth WHS scheme. If your business mainly operates under a state or territory WHS regime, you should not assume this Code applies in the same way unless your jurisdiction has adopted the same or a similar instrument.

The Code is mainly directed at PCBUs, but it also sets out duties for other people around the workplace. Officers, such as departmental secretaries or company directors, must exercise due diligence to ensure the PCBU complies with its duties. Workers must take reasonable care for their own psychological and physical health and safety, must not adversely affect others, and must comply with reasonable health and safety instructions and cooperate with reasonable policies or procedures they have been notified about. Other persons at the workplace, such as visitors, delivery people, customers, clients, patients and their families, also have duties to take reasonable care and comply with reasonable instructions so far as they are reasonably able.

The Code also highlights that designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers of plant, structures or substances can influence safety before products are used in the workplace. These duty holders must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that these products are without risks to health, including psychological health, and safety of workers or others who are at or near the workplace.

The definition of worker is broad. The Code expressly includes employees, contractors or subcontractors and their employees, labour hire workers, outworkers, apprentices or trainees, work experience students and volunteers. For many businesses, that means the psychosocial risk process needs to cover more people than the payroll list.

The Code defines psychosocial hazards as hazards that arise from or relate to the design or management of work, the working environment, plant at a workplace, or workplace interactions or behaviours, and that may cause psychological and physical harm. This is broader than obvious misconduct or complaint situations. It includes the way work is structured, organised, supported and changed over time.

The Code lists common psychosocial hazards that may arise from or be related to work. These include job demands, job insecurity, low job control, fatigue, poor support, lack of role clarity, poor organisational change management, inadequate recognition and reward, poor organisational justice, traumatic events or material, remote or isolated work, intrusive surveillance, poor physical environment, violence and aggression, bullying, harassment including sexual harassment, and conflict or poor workplace relationships and interactions.

The Code also says workers are likely to be exposed to a combination of psychosocial hazards. Some hazards may always be present, while others arise only occasionally. Hazards can interact or combine to increase risk. That means a business should not assess each issue in isolation. For example, high workload combined with poor support and low role clarity may create a more serious risk than any one factor viewed alone.

The Code notes that psychosocial hazards and appropriate control measures may vary between workplaces and between groups of workers, depending on the work environment, organisational context and the nature of the work. It also recognises that workers from diverse backgrounds may be exposed to different psychosocial hazards. The Code gives the example that women, young workers, workers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers, LGBTQI workers and workers with disability are more likely to experience workplace sexual harassment and should be given the opportunity to participate in consultation.

The harms described in the Code are not limited to mental health diagnoses. Psychological harm or injuries can include anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep disorders. Physical injuries from psychosocial hazards can include musculoskeletal injury, chronic disease, and physical injury following fatigue related workplace incidents.

The Code ties psychosocial risk management to the general WHS risk management framework in Part 3.1 of the WHS Regulations. It says a duty holder must identify reasonably foreseeable hazards that could give rise to psychosocial risks, eliminate risks so far as is reasonably practicable, and if elimination is not reasonably practicable, minimise the risks so far as is reasonably practicable. The duty holder must also maintain implemented control measures so they remain effective, and review and if necessary revise them.

In practical terms, the trigger point is not only when someone makes a formal complaint or suffers an injury. The Code is built around reasonably foreseeable hazards. If the way work is designed or managed could expose workers or others to psychosocial harm, that is enough to require attention. The table of contents also shows dedicated chapters on identifying hazards, assessing risks, controlling risks, reviewing control measures, recording the risk management process and outcomes, responding to reports, complaints or incidents, and conducting WHS investigations.

The Code specifically includes a section on when a risk assessment should be conducted. Even without reproducing that full chapter here, the structure of the Code makes clear that businesses should assess psychosocial risks as part of ordinary WHS management, especially where work design, staffing, customer interaction, supervision, workplace behaviour or organisational change may create foreseeable risk.

A useful business approach is to look at the work itself. Ask what parts of the job create pressure, uncertainty, conflict, exposure to harmful behaviour, fatigue or isolation. Then ask who is exposed, how often, how severe the likely harm could be, whether hazards combine, and what controls are available. The Code is not satisfied by a policy sitting on a shelf. It points to an active process of identifying hazards, deciding controls, implementing them, maintaining them and reviewing whether they work.

The Code explains that reasonably practicable means what is, or was at a particular time, reasonably able to be done to ensure health and safety, taking into account and weighing up all relevant matters. The matters listed include the likelihood of the hazard or risk occurring, the degree of harm that might result, the availability and suitability of ways to eliminate or minimise the risk, what the person knows or ought reasonably to know about the hazard or risk and the ways of eliminating or minimising it, and then, after assessing the extent of the risk and the available ways of eliminating or minimising it, the cost associated with those ways, including whether the cost is grossly disproportionate to the risk.

The Code gives several practical signals for businesses. First, the greater the risks, the more that is required to be done to eliminate or minimise them. Second, multiple control measures may be required. Third, the aim must be to keep trying to lower the likelihood and degree of harm until further steps are not reasonably practicable in the circumstances. Fourth, when considering each control or combination of controls, a duty holder must take into account the likelihood of that control being effective.

The Code also deals directly with cost. Cost is relevant, but only after the risk and the available control options have been assessed. If the cost of a control is grossly disproportionate to the risk, that control may not be required. But the Code is explicit that this does not excuse doing nothing. A less expensive way of minimising the risks must instead be used. If two controls provide the same level of protection and are equally reliable, the less expensive option can be chosen.

Importantly, the Code says the question of what is reasonably practicable is determined objectively, not by reference to your particular business's capacity to pay or other individual circumstances. A business cannot provide a lower level of protection simply because it is in a weaker financial position than another PCBU facing the same hazards or risks in similar circumstances. The goal of producing a product or providing a service at a particular price cannot override the duty to ensure health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable.

When deciding what controls to implement, the Code says a PCBU must have regard to all relevant matters, including the duration, frequency and severity of exposure, how hazards may interact or combine, the design of work including job demands and tasks, systems of work including how work is managed, organised and supported, workplace design and environmental conditions, workers' accommodation where relevant, plant, substances and structures, workplace interactions or behaviours, and the information, training, instruction and supervision provided to workers.

That points businesses toward controls that change the work itself, not only the worker. Training may help, but the Code's structure suggests training should sit alongside work design, management and environmental controls rather than replace them.

The Code says a PCBU must consult, so far as is reasonably practicable, with workers who carry out work for the business or undertaking and who are, or are likely to be, directly affected by a WHS matter. If there are agreed consultation procedures, consultation must be conducted in accordance with those procedures. The Code also says you must consult with workers when assessing risks or making decisions about psychosocial risks to health and safety, including what control measures are implemented.

Consultation must include any Health and Safety Representatives representing your workers. The Code says workers must be given a reasonable opportunity to raise psychosocial health and safety issues, express their views and contribute to decision-making. When consulting, the PCBU must share relevant information, give workers a reasonable opportunity to express views and raise issues, take those views into account before making decisions, and advise workers of the outcome of consultations in a timely manner.

The Code recognises that effective consultation methods vary. Some methods work better for workers without regular computer access. Others allow sensitive issues to be raised anonymously or with more context. The Code also notes that culturally and linguistically diverse workers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers may need or benefit from different forms of consultation, such as materials in preferred languages and culturally appropriate people and messages. Multiple methods of consultation may be needed for psychosocial hazards.

The Code also says regular consultation is better than consulting only as issues arise on a case-by-case basis, or only as a reaction to a particular event, because it allows potential problems to be identified and fixed early. It lists a range of situations where consultation is required, including identifying hazards and assessing risks, making decisions about ways to eliminate or minimise risks, proposing changes that may affect health or safety, and making decisions about consultation procedures, issue resolution, monitoring and training.

For governance, the Code says officers must exercise due diligence. For psychosocial risks, that means taking reasonable steps to acquire and keep up-to-date knowledge of psychosocial WHS matters, understand the nature of the business operations and associated psychosocial hazards and risks, ensure the PCBU has and uses appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise psychosocial risks, ensure there are processes for receiving and considering information about incidents, hazards and risks and responding in a timely way, ensure compliance processes exist and are implemented, and verify that those resources and processes are being used and are performing effectively.

The table of contents also shows dedicated chapters on recording the risk management process and outcomes, responding to reports, complaints or incidents, and conducting WHS investigations. That is a strong signal that businesses should be able to show their work. If an issue escalates, you will want records of hazards identified, consultation undertaken, controls chosen, implementation steps, reports received, responses made and review outcomes.

The Code also reminds readers that WHS laws do not operate in isolation. Other laws may also apply, including industrial relations, criminal, anti-discrimination, privacy and workers' compensation laws. That matters where the same facts involve bullying, sexual harassment, surveillance, disciplinary action, sensitive information or injury management.

The instrument was made on 27 October 2024 and registered on the Federal Register of Legislation on 1 November 2024. Its commencement clause says it commences on the day after registration on the Federal Register of Legislation. On that basis, the commencement date is 2 November 2024.

The Federal Register lists the instrument as in force. Businesses should still check the latest registered version before relying on this page, especially if they are dealing with a current investigation, inspector interaction, complaint process or major organisational change.

Before relying on this page, a business should confirm three things. First, that its workplace is actually covered by the federal WHS Act rather than a state or territory scheme. Second, that it has checked the full Code together with the WHS Act and WHS Regulations for the exact legal requirements. Third, that it has considered whether related issues also engage other legal areas such as industrial relations, anti-discrimination, privacy or workers' compensation law.