A Comcare inspection found an Australian Public Service agency breached two WHS duties after introducing a new performance management system:
- Section 47 - Duty to consult workers on matters related to their safety
- Section 19 - Duty to manage psychosocial risks
Below are the details of the case and key insights. (image below is from Comcare)
Background Information
- An Australian Public Service agency introduced a new performance management system.
- The agency consulted ongoing staff but not labour work hires and contractors.
- Labour hire staff complained that the new system led to bullying and increased stress.
- Comcare found the risks were foreseeable and the agency breached it’s duty to manage risks and consult workers.
- The agency was directed to develop a corrective action plan to ensure risks were managed and all staff consulted on changes.
Key Insights
The case highlights the need to consult workers. It leads to an important question leaders should consider in 2025:
Do we have criteria for when we should formally assess risks in consultation with workers?
While a formal risk assessment isn't necessary for every change, it's good to consider what events might trigger the need for a more thorough and formal assessment of psychosocial risk. The image below is from a Commonwealth Bank case study on their approach:
Commonwealth Bank runs annual assessments in consultation with workers. They have defined set events that would trigger earlier re-assessments. Here are some events that might trigger an early re-assessment:
- Restructuring or leadership changes
- Mergers or acquisitions
- Redundancies
- Policy changes
- New technology or systems
However, there's potentially a more challenging question for leaders to consider first.
How do we assess and address risks in consultation with workers?
A valuable asset for organisations now is a system to address psychosocial risks in consultation with workers. One of the challenges with this is that consultation is usually administratively exhaustive. It doesn't have to be though. As Martyn Campbell states - “the law mandates you to consult workers, but it doesn’t specify how you must do this”.
The short check approach could be one way to overcome this. Below is an example you could look at applying in 2025:
As 2025 gets underway it's a good time to consider how your workplace is involving workers in assessing and managing risks. Safe Work’s safety report highlighted the need for this with its mental health claims data. Fastest growing claims, highest payouts and longest time off work. Mitigating these risks is possible and it doesn’t have to be costly or disruptive.
We hope you found this strategy helpful. Thank you for reading as always.
