This code of practice on how to manage psychosocial hazards at work is an approved code of practice under section 274 of the New South Wales Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act).

An approved code of practice provides practical guidance on how to achieve compliance with the work health and safety standards required under the WHS Act and the Work Health and Safety Regulation (WHS Regulation), including effective ways to identify and manage risks.

A code of practice applies to anyone who has a duty of care in the circumstances described in the code of practice. In most cases, following an approved code of practice will assist the duty holder in achieving compliance with the health and safety duties in the WHS Act and WHS Regulation concerning the code’s subject matter

Like regulations, codes of practice tend to deal with particular risks, and do not cover all hazards or risks that may arise. The health and safety duties require duty holders to consider all risks associated with work, not only those for which regulations and codes of practice exist.
Codes of practice are admissible in court proceedings under the WHS Act and the WHS Regulation. Courts may regard a code of practice as evidence of what is known about a hazard, risk or control and may rely on the code in determining what is reasonably practicable in the circumstances to which the code relates. For further information, see Safe Work Australia How to determine what is reasonably practicable to meet a Health and Safety Duty.

Compliance with the WHS Act and WHS Regulation may be achieved by following another method if this achieves an equivalent or higher standard of safety than set out in this code.

An inspector may refer to an approved code of practice when issuing an improvement or prohibition notice.

Scope and Application

This code is intended to be read by persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) and those who have duties under the WHS Act. It provides practical guidance on the process a PCBU could use to identify and to manage psychosocial hazards at work. You should use this code of practice if you have functions or responsibilities that involve managing, so far as is reasonably practicable, exposure to psychosocial hazards and risks to psychological and physical health and safety at work.

The code may also be a useful reference for other persons interested in complying with the duties under the WHS Act and WHS Regulation. Examples in this code identify actions a PCBU, an officer of a PCBU, a worker, or other persons should take, but which by themselves may not be sufficient to fulfil a PCBU’s obligations or a worker’s or other person’s responsibility under WHS legislation.

This code applies to all work and workplaces covered by the WHS Act. Throughout this code, the reasonably practicable limitation under section 18 of the WHS Act applies to the general duty.

Scope and Application

This code is intended to be read by persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) and those who have duties under the WHS Act. It provides practical guidance on the process a PCBU could use to identify and to manage psychosocial hazards at work. You should use this code of practice if you have functions or responsibilities that involve managing, so far as is reasonably practicable, exposure to psychosocial hazards and risks to psychological and physical health and safety at work.
The code may also be a useful reference for other persons interested in complying with the duties under the WHS Act and WHS Regulation. Examples in this code identify actions a PCBU, an officer of a PCBU, a worker, or other persons should take, but which by themselves may not be sufficient to fulfil a PCBU’s obligations or a worker’s or other person’s responsibility under WHS legislation.
This code applies to all work and workplaces covered by the WHS Act. Throughout this code, the reasonably practicable limitation under section 18 of the WHS Act applies to the general duty.

1. Introduction

The WHS Act defines ‘health’ as including both physical and psychological health. A PCBU has a primary duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and also to ensure that other persons are not put at risk from work carried out arising from the business or undertaking.
When psychosocial hazards and risks at work are not effectively managed, this may increase the risk of work-related psychological and physical injuries, incidents and errors. Therefore, it may be helpful when assessing the risk of musculoskeletal and traumatic injury to consider the psychosocial hazards and risks and controls noted in the code.
Ensuring a systematic process to manage psychosocial hazards and risks will help the PCBU and duty holder meet their WHS responsibilities. It will also decrease organisational disruptions and costs resulting from work-related harm and may improve WHS and broader organisational performance and productivity.

1.1 What are the common psychosocial hazards at work?

Psychosocial hazards at work are aspects of work and situations that may cause a stress response which in turn can lead to psychological or physical harm. These stem from:
the way the tasks or job are designed, organised, managed and supervised
tasks or jobs where there are inherent psychosocial hazards and risks
the equipment, working environment or requirements to undertake duties in physically hazardous environments, and
social factors at work, workplace relationships and social interactions.
Psychosocial hazards and the appropriate controls will vary for every workplace and sometimes between groups of workers depending on the:
organisational context to work (e.g. economic pressures, type and size of the business, organisational structure and culture, environmental conditions, technologies, and business activities, products and services, supply chains and contractual arrangements, workers’ skills and attributes and workplace relationships) and
content of the work (workload, workers’ roles, responsibilities and activities required to deliver the product or service).
Some hazards by themselves have the potential to cause serious harm, such as experiencing occupational violence. In most circumstances, hazards will not occur alone but together with a range of psychosocial and physical hazards. As part of the risk assessment process the frequency and duration of exposure to psychosocial hazards will need to be considered. The more psychosocial hazards that are present, the more likely there is for harm to occur.
Some of the most common psychosocial hazards are noted in Table 1. There may be hazards not relevant to your work or relevant to your work but not included. These will be identified through your hazard and risk identification process.

Psychosocial Hazards