Australian Unions are conducting a third national survey about workers’ experience of health and safety in the workplace, and we really want your input.
Health and safety in our workplaces may not be top of the mind, but there are many health and safety issues members face every day at work from the appropriateness of workplace equipment to mental injuries from excessive workloads and lack of flexibility in the workplace.
The survey will build on our understanding of your experience at work, what is important to you and what you think could be improved.
We want to find out what employers are doing about these issues, and we’ll use the results when campaigning and advocating for changes.
In fact, Australian Union have been able to make great use of the results in the last two years around mental health and work, drawing upon the experience of more than 40,000 workers sharing their stories about workplace mental health.
Now all States and Territories have agreed to introduce strong regulations designed to protect workers’ mental health. Victoria was a leader in this regard, however the proposed changes to WorkCover will significantly undermine the mental health regulations when workers are unable to access the support they need following a mental injury at work.
You can read the report for the 2022 Survey here and the 2021 Survey here.
The survey is open until Friday 11 August 2023 and should only take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
I strongly encourage members to complete the Work Shouldn’t Hurt 2023 survey and help us continue to have the research to support our advocacy for changes that improve your workplace health and safety. Take the survey here: https://ausunions.io/WSH2023.
While work shouldn’t hurt, neither should WorkCover, but unfortunately, the Union continues to work to have the proposed changes stopped to Victoria’s WorkCover scheme.
The changes will result in people experiencing stress from excessive workload or inappropriate behaviour and/or mental health injuries being denied access to WorkCover. These changes will have a direct impact on members who are already experiencing stress and burn out from excessive workloads and could result in the very real scenario of more workers who are suffering burn out, or stress or anxiety, going undiagnosed because they can’t access the support and treatment they need.
It is appalling that workers are being expected to take the brunt of these changes.
We’re working with other unions to oppose these changes and we will continue to report on the progress of the government’s proposed changes. If you’re interested in working with us to defeat these appalling changes, please contact Alex at alexs@msav.org.au
In the meantime, we encourage members to sign the petition calling on the Victorian Government to drop these changes.
