Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 (Psychosocial Regulations) will commence on 1 December 2025, and mark a significant shift in employers' obligations to control health and safety risks associated with psychosocial hazards in Victoria.

What do you need to know about the Psychosocial Regulations?

The Psychosocial Regulations require employers to, so far as is reasonably practicable:

• identify psychosocial hazards;
• assess, where necessary, any associated risks to health and safety;
• eliminate any risk associated with a psychosocial hazard;
• if elimination is not reasonably practicable, reduce the risk; and
• monitor, review and, if necessary, revise measures implemented to control risks associated with psychosocial hazards.

These obligations are owed to employees, independent contractors and labour-hire workers.

The Psychosocial Regulations differ from an earlier draft version of the Regulations in a number of ways (as discussed in our earlier update about the new psychosocial regulations). Perhaps most importantly, the Regulations no longer require employers to:

• report psychosocial complaints to WorkSafe every 6 months (the earlier draft had proposed this requirement for larger employers with more than 50 employees); and
• put in place prevention plans for identified psychosocial hazards (aggression or violence, bullying, exposure to traumatic content or events, high job demands and sexual harassment).

WorkSafe Victoria has, however, released a template prevention plan to help guide the risk assessment process for identifying psychosocial hazards and to assist with record-keeping. While outside of Queensland written prevention plans are not strictly required, they are still a prudent risk management strategy for employers and other persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) to have in other jurisdictions including Victoria.

Defining key concepts

Psychosocial hazards

The Psychosocial Regulations include a broader and more explicit definition around the sources of work health and safety risks when compared with the Model WHS law adopted in other Australian jurisdictions. We will need to see if this has any practical impact on how organisations manage psychosocial hazards in Victoria.

The new Psychosocial Regulations define a psychosocial hazard broadly as any factor in work design, systems of work, the management of work, the carrying out of work or personal or work-related interactions that:

• may arise in the working environment; and
• may cause an employee to experience negative psychological responses, that create a risk to the employee's health or safety.

The Psychosocial Regulations make it clear that psychological responses include both cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses as well as the physiological processes associated with them (e.g., both psychological or physical harm, or both).
By contrast, the Model WHS jurisdictions define psychosocial hazards as hazards that arise from, or relate to, the design or management of work; a work environment; plant at a workplace; or workplace interactions or behaviours, that “may cause psychological harm, whether or not it also causes physical harm.”

While the practical effect of this new Victorian definition is likely similar to the approach to defining hazards in the Model WHS jurisdictions, Victoria’s definition appears to be broader and more explicit about the sources of risk, including not only work-related interactions but personal interactions (arising in the work environment), the systems of work and the carrying out of work. The examples provided in the Compliance Code for those categories of hazards, however, appear to almost completely overlap with the Model WHS jurisdictions.

Hierarchy of controls changes

The Psychosocial Regulations also introduce a modified hierarchy of controls for psychosocial risks.

This means that if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risk associated with a psychosocial hazard, employers must:

• alter the management of work, plant, system of work, work design, or the work environment;
• use information, instruction or training, to reduce the risk; or
• implement a combination of these measures.

Importantly, information, instruction or training can only be used exclusively if other measures are not reasonably practicable. Where a combination of controls is used, information, instruction or training must not be the predominant measure.

The approach in Victoria is more prescriptive than in other states, where training and information may be used more flexibly. For example, guidance provided in other states and territories recognises that information, instruction or training may be used as a stand-alone control measure or in combination with other measures where a single risk control is not sufficient.

Consultation with HSRs

The new Psychosocial Regulations also reinforce the importance of consultation in managing psychosocial risks, and include more detail on how this should occur.
While the primary consultation obligations are set out in Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Act), the Psychosocial Regulations specifically detail how employers must involve Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) in consultation including:

• providing the HSR with all the information about the matter that the employer provides, or intends to provide, to the employees;
• providing that information to the HSR a reasonable time before giving it to the employees, unless that is not reasonably practicable;
• inviting the HSR to meet, and meeting with the HSR if requested, to consult on matters; and
• giving the HSRs a reasonable opportunity to express their views and taking them into account.

The Psychosocial Regulations also prescribe when an employer must review and, if necessary, revise any measures implemented to control risks including:

• before alteration is made to any thing, process or system of work that is likely to result in changes to risks associated with psychosocial hazards;
• if new or additional information about a psychosocial hazard becomes available;
• if an employee, or a person on their behalf, reports a psychological injury or a psychosocial hazard to the employer (e.g., an allegation of bullying, sexual harassment or occupational violence);
• after a notifiable incident occurs that involves a psychosocial hazard;
• if, for any other reason, the risk control measures do not adequately control the risks associated with a psychosocial hazard;
• after receiving a request from an HSR.

Just how wide ranging WorkSafe's expectations for a 'review' will be, remains to be seen.

How your organisation can prepare for compliance with the Psychosocial Regulations

• Review your organisation's approach and systems for managing psychosocial risks in the workplace, in light of the WorkSafe Victoria's new Compliance Code and the Psychosocial Regulations;
• Consider whether it is necessary to update your consultation procedure to accommodate the additional steps required for consultation with HSRs; and
• Ensure workers and managers are given sufficient instruction, training and supervision on the management of psychosocial risk, and systems are established for them to report and respond to risks identified in the workplace.