Psychosocial Hazards in Victoria
The Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 in Victoria, which take effect on 1 December 2025, establish a mandatory framework that applies equally to all Victorian employers, regardless of size. This means companies with 1 to 500 employees are held to the same foundational standard as the largest corporations, requiring a proactive and systemic approach to managing mental health risks.
While the compliance system must be scaled appropriately for a smaller business, the core duties remain non-negotiable.
1. The Universal Core Duty for All Employers
All Victorian companies must comply with three fundamental obligations reinforced by the new Regulations:
Identify Psychosocial Hazards: Employers must proactively search for factors in the work environment that could cause a negative psychological response (like stress or distress) leading to harm. For a small to medium-sized business, this is most effectively done through mandatory consultation with employees, and by reviewing internal data such as incident reports, sick leave patterns, and staff turnover.
Control Risks Using the Hierarchy: Once a hazard is identified, the employer must first try to eliminate the risk entirely, so far as is reasonably practicable. If elimination is not possible, they must reduce the risk by applying a specified order of controls:
Altering Work Systems and Design: This includes changing the management of work, the systems of work, the work design, or the work environment (e.g., redesigning roles, adjusting workloads, or improving management support).
Information, Instruction, and Training: Only after higher-level controls have been considered can the employer rely on training, information, or instruction. Crucially, using methods like resilience training alone, without addressing the root cause in the job's design, will not meet compliance requirements.
Review Control Measures: All implemented control measures must be regularly reviewed, especially after an incident, when new information becomes available, or if requested by a Health and Safety Representative (HSR).
2. Psychosocial Hazards Amplified in SMEs
While all hazards listed in the Regulations are relevant, companies with 1 to 500 employees often face unique challenges that amplify certain risks:
High Job Demands: With fewer staff, there is often less redundancy, leading to chronic high workload, long hours, and pressure on employees (including management) to cover multiple roles. To control this, the focus must be on clear job design, realistic resource allocation, and defined capacity limits, rather than just telling staff to "manage their stress."
Low Job Control: Employees may have high demands but feel powerless over how they perform their tasks. A control measure involves empowering workers to make decisions about their pace, methods, and scheduling, which often improves engagement and reduces stress.
Poor Support: In smaller businesses, managers may lack formal training or the time to provide the necessary practical and emotional support. Compliance requires the business to implement a clear management system that includes supervisory training in psychological safety and effective communication.
Bullying, Harassment, and Poor Relationships: Tensions can escalate quickly and permeate a small workforce. The legal duty is to implement and enforce clear, fair policies on conduct and ensure a confidential system is available for reporting issues, which is vital for maintaining organisational justice.
3. Documentation and Planning
Although the final Regulations did not mandate written prevention plans for the five key hazards (as was proposed in earlier drafts), WorkSafe Victoria strongly encourages their use as a best-practice tool. For a business of this size, creating a simple, written plan for each major identified risk (such as high job demands or bullying) is a practical way to document their compliance efforts and demonstrate that they are following the identify-control-review process.
In summary, the Victorian psychosocial regulations require SMEs to establish a demonstrable, functional system for psychological risk management, treating systemic stressors with the same seriousness as physical hazards.
