Psychological Health at Work
Since 1 December 2025, Victorian employers have had a specific legal duty to identify and control psychosocial hazards at work. Here is what the rules require, how to put them in place, and what is at stake if you wait.
Last reviewed 27 September 2026.
In Short
The Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 add a specific process to the duties Victorian employers already had under the OHS Act 2004.
The regulations commenced on 1 December 2025. WorkSafe Victoria expects employers to comply from that date.
WorkSafe says the regulations apply to all employers. There is no exemption based on the size of your business.
Identify psychosocial hazards. Eliminate or reduce the risks so far as is reasonably practicable. Review and revise your controls when set events happen.
Where you combine controls, information, instruction or training must not be the predominant control. The main fixes have to change the work itself.
The Hazards
Safe Work Australia describes a psychosocial hazard as anything that could cause psychological harm. Most of the hazards on its list sit in how work is designed, managed and led.
High job demands, low job control, lack of role clarity, remote or isolated work, and a poor physical environment.
Poor support, poor organisational change management, inadequate reward and recognition, and poor organisational justice.
Bullying, harassment including sexual and gender-based harassment, violence and aggression, and conflict or poor workplace relationships.
Traumatic events or material, for example in health, emergency, legal or content moderation work.
Hazards also combine. Safe Work Australia gives the example of high workloads, where the risk grows if workers cannot take breaks or there is no one around to help. That is why a single survey question or a one-off workshop rarely finds the real risk.
The Requirements
Find the psychosocial hazards in your workplace. Talk to your people and your health and safety representatives, and look at the data you already have, such as complaints, turnover and absence.
Eliminate the risk where you can. Where you cannot, reduce it so far as is reasonably practicable, using the regulations' tailored hierarchy of controls. Training alone does not count as the main control.
Review and revise your controls when set events happen, including an employee report of psychological injury, a notifiable incident, or a planned change to how work is done.
WorkSafe says a written prevention plan is not mandatory, but it encourages employers to use its template. It is a practical way to record what you found and what you did.
Read the regulator's own guidance: WorkSafe Victoria's psychological health regulations FAQ and its announcement of the regulations.
Beyond Victoria
The Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 requires the hierarchy of controls for psychosocial risks. SafeWork NSW's code of practice, issued in May 2021, explains how. SafeWork NSW code of practice.
Queensland's code of practice on managing the risk of psychosocial hazards has been in force since 1 April 2023. The Queensland Government described it as the first legally enforceable code of its type in Australia.
Safe Work Australia published the model code of practice on managing psychosocial hazards in August 2022. It only has legal effect in a state or territory that approves it. Safe Work Australia on psychosocial hazards.
Putting It In Place
This is how we approach it with clients. It follows our Discover, Design, Deliver framework, and it is practical advice, not a statement of your legal duties.
Interviews and listening sessions with people at every level, a review of your people data, and a close look at how work is designed, allocated and led. The aim is a clear list of hazards, ranked by risk.
For each priority hazard, controls that act on the cause: workloads, role clarity, how change is planned and communicated, how complaints are handled. Training supports these controls. It does not replace them.
Most psychosocial risk shows up first in everyday management: a performance conversation, a restructure, a heavy quarter. We work with your leaders so they recognise early signs and respond well.
Set review points that match the regulation's triggers, keep a record of what you found and did, and track whether the risk is falling. Our free turnover rate calculator is one simple measure to watch.
Want help with this? See our workplace culture consulting.
What Is At Stake
WorkSafe Victoria says employers must comply from 1 December 2025. When it decides how to respond, it says inspectors will take into account factors such as an employer's previous experience with psychosocial risk management.
In December 2025, Comcare reported that the Department of Defence had been convicted and fined for failing to manage psychosocial risks relating to the death of a worker. Comcare news.
Since December 2022, the Sex Discrimination Act has required employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate workplace sexual harassment, as far as possible. Sexual harassment is also a psychosocial hazard, so one program of work can support both.
Unmanaged psychosocial risk shows up as people leaving, long absences, psychological injury claims, and leaders spending their time on conflict instead of the work.
Who You Work With
Mari Ruiz-Matthyssen, founder of Neni Consulting, is regularly invited to speak on industry panels about the psychosocial regulations. She was named AHRI HR Leader of the Year 2017 and CEO Magazine HR Executive of the Year 2017, and she delivers every engagement herself. See Mari's awards.
Common Questions
Yes. WorkSafe Victoria says the regulations require all employers to identify psychosocial hazards, control the risks and review those controls. There is no exemption for small businesses. What is reasonably practicable will look different in a team of ten than in a company of a thousand.
No. WorkSafe Victoria says prevention plans are not mandatory, but it encourages employers to use its template. Many employers find a written plan the easiest way to show what they found, what they did and when they will review it.
No. Where an employer uses a combination of controls, the Victorian regulations say information, instruction or training must not be the predominant control. Training helps, but the main controls have to change the work itself: workloads, roles, how change is managed and how people are treated.
WorkSafe Victoria lists review triggers including: when new information about a psychosocial hazard becomes available, when an employee reports a psychological injury or a psychosocial hazard, after a notifiable incident involving a psychosocial hazard, before changes to work or systems of work that are likely to change the risks, and when a health and safety representative asks. Check WorkSafe's full list.
Both states have their own rules under the WHS laws. In NSW, the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 requires the hierarchy of controls for psychosocial risks, supported by the SafeWork NSW code of practice. In Queensland, a code of practice on psychosocial hazards has been in force since 1 April 2023. Apply the rules of the state where each person works.
No. We are workplace culture consultants, not lawyers. We help you find the hazards in how work is designed and led, and build the practices that control them. For advice on your legal obligations, speak to a qualified employment or WHS lawyer.
This page is general information, last reviewed 27 September 2026. It is not legal advice. We are workplace culture consultants, not lawyers.
For advice on your legal obligations, speak to a qualified employment or WHS lawyer.
Book a conversation with Mari, or invite her to speak to your leadership team or at your event.
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