Psychosocial Hazards in Queensland — WHS Obligations for QLD Employers

The 2022 Code of Practice sets out four specific obligations for PCBUs in Queensland:

• Identify psychosocial hazards — through worker consultation, observation, workplace inspections, and review of available data including incident reports and workers' compensation claims.
• Assess the risks — considering the likelihood and severity of harm, the breadth of exposure, and any existing controls.
• Implement controls — using the hierarchy of risk control, prioritising elimination and substitution before administrative measures.
• Review controls — on a scheduled basis and whenever a significant change occurs, to verify effectiveness and identify emerging hazards.

The Code also specifies that worker consultation is not optional — it is a mandatory part of each step. PCBUs must give workers a genuine opportunity to contribute to hazard identification and control design.

Queensland adopted the national harmonised WHS framework in 2011. The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) mirrors the model WHS Act, with the primary duty of care under Section 19 requiring PCBUs to ensure the health — including psychological health — of workers so far as is reasonably practicable.

The Managing the Risk of Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice 2022 is approved under Section 274 of the WHS Act. Compliance with an approved Code of Practice is not mandatory, but a PCBU that does not follow it must demonstrate an equivalent or better standard of protection. In practice, the Code defines the floor of acceptable conduct for WorkSafe Queensland.

The Code specifies a four-step risk management process: identify psychosocial hazards, assess the risks they create, implement control measures, and review the effectiveness of those controls over time. Each step is expected to be documented and to involve genuine worker consultation.

Safe Work Australia identifies the following common psychosocial hazards applicable to Queensland workplaces across all sectors. High-risk industries in Queensland — including mining, healthcare, aged care, construction, and transport — face elevated exposure to many of these hazards given their work design and operating conditions.

WorkSafe Queensland (part of the Office of Industrial Relations) is the primary WHS regulator in Queensland. Inspectors have authority to enter workplaces, require documentation, and issue improvement notices or prohibition notices where psychosocial risk management is inadequate.

Enforcement activity around psychosocial hazards has increased since the 2022 Code of Practice came into force. WorkSafe Queensland has signalled that it will assess whether organisations can demonstrate a genuine, ongoing risk management cycle — not just the existence of a policy or an EAP provider.

In the resources sector, the Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) regulator operates in parallel, with specific obligations for mine operators under the Safety in Mines Testing and Research Station (SIMTARS) framework and relevant mining legislation.

Organisations that cannot produce a documented, time-stamped record of hazard identification, risk assessment, control implementation, worker consultation, and review cycles are at material risk of enforcement action — particularly where a psychological injury claim has occurred.

Most Queensland employers have some form of incident reporting and an EAP provider. Fewer have a structured record of proactive psychosocial hazard management — the kind of ongoing documentation that demonstrates the four-step cycle was operating before a harm event occurred.

When a workers' compensation claim, psychological injury allegation, or WorkSafe Queensland inspection arises, the organisation needs to be able to produce:

• Evidence that specific psychosocial hazards were identified at the relevant workplace
• A record of what risk controls were implemented and when
• Documentation that control effectiveness was reviewed
• Worker consultation records tied to specific hazards or site conditions

Gaps in any of these areas — even where genuine management action occurred — leave the organisation without the evidence needed to demonstrate its duty of care was met under the WHS Act 2011 (Qld).