Psychosocial Hazards at Work — What Your Employer Must Do
What counts as a psychosocial hazard
Anything at work that may cause psychological harm, arising from how work is designed, managed, or the environment. Common examples directly relevant to clinical optometry work:
- Unreasonably high job demands (e.g. patient volumes or consult-time KPIs that don’t allow for clinically appropriate care)
- Low job control / lack of clinical autonomy
- Poor support from management
- Bullying, harassment, or aggression from patients, colleagues, or management
- Poor organisational justice (unfair or inconsistent treatment)
The legal duty
Under the model WHS laws, the PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking — your employer) must, so far as reasonably practicable, eliminate or minimise psychosocial risks, using the same risk-management process as physical hazards: identify, assess, control, review. This is a positive duty — it’s not enough to wait for someone to complain.
Where to go next
- Safe Work Australia: Model Code of Practice — Managing psychosocial hazards at work (PDF)
- Safe Work Australia: Psychosocial hazards overview
- Your state/territory regulator (e.g. SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe) has adopted this Code with local variations — check your own state’s version, as WHS is state-administered even though the model laws are national.
General information only. Specific duties and enforcement vary by state/territory. [Draft — please have this reviewed for accuracy before relying on it publicly.]
Primary source: Safe Work Australia — Model Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work