Comcare has launched a new suit of guidance and education products to help employers prepare for recent changes to work health and safety (WHS) regulations requiring them to manage psychological health and safety risks.
Launching the guidance and education products, Comcare said that for the first time, the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 prescribe how employers must identify and manage hazards and risks to workers’ psychological health and safety.
“The amended regulations came into effect on 1 April, defining important terms including ‘psychosocial hazard’ and ‘psychosocial risk’ and identifying the hazards employers must control in the workplace,” Comcare said.
“Comcare is providing ongoing support to help the jurisdiction prepare with published guidance and education products on psychosocial hazards and risks,” it said.
“This includes a new suite of guidance on work demands, a major cause of psychological injury across the scheme and a Prevention Strategy that focuses on common threats to psychological health and safety.”
Comcare said the model code of practice had important guidance relating to WHS duties, hazard identification and risk management, and identified common workplace psychosocial hazards including bullying and harassment; work demands; poor organisational change management; traumatic events and material; and remote or isolated work.
“Those with management and control of the workplace must use the hierarchy of controls to manage psychosocial risks, set out in the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011,” it said.
“This is a step-by-step approach to eliminating or minimising risks, ranking controls from the highest to the lowest level of protection.”
Comcare’s guidance on work demands can be accessed at this PS News link and its eight page Prevention Strategy at this link.
