The Victorian Government is introducing major changes to the occupational health and safety landscape by including regulations that specifically address psychological health in workplaces.
The proposed regulations recognise that for workplaces to be safe it is necessary to minimise psychological harm to workers; and that psychological injuries are as harmful as physical injuries.
It is perhaps one of largest changes to OHS for a very long time.
The proposed regulations strengthen existing occupational health and safety requirements in Victorian workplaces which have long been designed to cater to risks that could cause physical harm to workers.
The Union does have some reservations about the proposed new regulations. For example, there are some concerns around the limited number of reportable matters. The Union also has concerns about the thresholds needed for before a workplace review is triggered.
We maintain the very strong view we have held for some time that workload stress related impacts are injuries in every sense of the word and will advocate for this to be reflected in new regulations.
While these are important issues for the Union, they do not negate the fact that the proposed regulations are quite significant and a massive step in the right direction to ensuring workplaces are safe from psychological injury as they are from physical injury.
