Comments on: Will workplace psychological regulations work?

By: Kevin Jones

Kevin Jones — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 04:15:15 +0000

In reply to DideeM.

Thanks Dianne, some people have told me that the Victorian Regulations “will be rolled out nationally” but I haven’t been able to confirm that. I remember the jurisdictions agreeing to this but assumed that it was on hold given the number, and prominence, of the various Codes of Practice, particularly given the different approach that WA seems to have applied.
I will look again at Boland’s recommendation to see why she preferred Regulations over Codes and Guidance.

By: DideeM

DideeM — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 03:00:22 +0000

Safe Work Australia appointed independent reviewer, Ms Marie Boland, to conduct the 5 year Review into the Model WHS Laws. The final report of the review was provided to WHS ministers in December 2018. There was 34 recommendations.
Point 2 of the Model Laws review recommendation: Make regulations dealing with Psychological health. Amend the model WHS Regulations to deal with how to identify the psychosocial risks associated with psychological injury.
On May 20th, 2021 Ministers responsible from the Commonwealth and each state met and the recommendation to proceed with the amendment to the regulations was one of the agreed outcomes. On the 3rd of December, 2021 meeting of Work Health and Safety Ministers, all ministers noted the implementation of the agreed recommendations is on tract with measure to be completed or substantially completed by end of 2022.
The new Victoria regulations where flagged just prior to the minsters agreeing to the recommendations to amend the national model regulations. Victoria is simply the first, the other states that are currently using the model WHS laws as per above are on track to follow shortly with amendments to the WHS state regulations.

By: NeilFoster

NeilFoster — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 01:19:33 +0000

Kevin, one thing to keep in mind in terms of the difference between Regulations and Codes of Practice is that, in Victoria especially, there is a history of allowing a civil action for damages by an injured worker based on a breach of the regulations (a specific tort action called “breach of statutory duty”), whereas such actions have never been recognised in relation to Codes of Practice. This means that even if a regulation is enforced in a patchy way by regulators, there may be some civil actions where an award of damages may be available if the regulation has been breached and harm caused to a worker. So there is that difference.

By: pamoylan@bigpond.net.au

pamoylan@bigpond.net.au — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 22:50:26 +0000

The regs will work if they are rigorously enforced by a skilled inspectors with strong penalties