After a strong start in the focus on safety in the workforce within Australia over the last decade, progress has slowed down, according to Safe Work Australia, and workplace injuries and illness are stagnant. 

As we enter 2025, make this the year you prioritise the health and safety of your workforce, here’s how you can approach it.

What Can We Learn From The Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy?

Safe Work Australia, in conjunction with the Australian Government and every state and territory government, worked together to develop a strategy covering 2023 to 2033 which sets an ambitious vision for what Work Health and Safety outcomes in Australia could look like in the next decade. 

The previous decade laid the foundational work to ensure Australia becomes one of the safest places to work. This has been achieved through consistency and learning, enhancing the model regulatory framework, responding to regular and persistent Work Health and Safety challenges, and reducing harm. But there is still work to be done beyond a regulatory level. It’s up to every business in Australia to do their part. 

Australian companies need to keep their eyes set on the national goal of the Australian Work Health and Safety (WHS) Strategy over the next ten years: reduce worker fatalities, injuries, and illness.

There are five actions underpinning the strategy:

• Information and awareness

• National coordination

• Data and intelligence gathering

• Health and safety leadership

• Compliance and enforcement

Together, we’ll be walking through each of these actions, exploring how you can ensure you meet WHS targets and advance Australia’s safety, health and environment performance. 

Current Landscape of Work Health and Safety

To continue improving Work Health and Safety outcomes, it’s important to understand where things currently stand. Despite improvements, there are still far too many workplace injuries happening across Australia.

Within the strategy was the call out for high priority to be given to the six industries where there are the highest rates of workplace injury and illness. These industries are: agriculture, construction, road transport, manufacturing, health care and social assistance, and public administration and safety. These industries account for 70% of fatalities and 58% of serious workers’ compensation claims according to the latest data. Psychosocial hazards are the most prominent among health care and social assistance, and public administration and safety. 

Causes: Most Common Workplace Injuries 

• Vehicle incidents

• Falls, slips and trips

• Being hit by moving objects

• Body stressing

Persistent Challenges:

1. Managing psychosocial risks

2. Health and safety vulnerability

3. Small businesses needing additional support

Emerging Challenges:

• Rise of artificial intelligence (AI), automation and related technologies

• New types of work

• Workforce demographic shifts

• Hybrid work

• Climate-related risks

• More complex supply chains

Action One: Information and Awareness

While ingrained in Australian business, there is more work to be done to ensure everyone coming to work for you has the same understanding of Work Health and Safety. As identified within the strategy, there is a perception within some parts of Australia that strictly following National and State/Territory level Work Health and Safety requirements negatively impacts business productivity. 

But it’s important to remember workplace injury isn’t only an issue for the person injured and their families–the cost to businesses is large, with forced downtime, being out a worker, and if you’re found to be at fault, workers compensation and other claims.

Psychosocial Hazards

There’s also a general lack of awareness of the psychosocial risks or hazards that exist within the workplace. Psychosocial hazards are anything that has the potential to cause psychological harm and can include, according to Safe Work Australia:

• Job demands

• Low job control

• Poor support and lack of role clarity

• Poor organisational change management

• Inadequate reward and recognition

• Poor organisational justice

• Traumatic events or material 

• Remote or isolated work

• Poor physical environment

• Violence and aggression 

• Bullying

• Harassment, including sexual and gender-based harassment, and

• Conflict or poor workplace relationships and interactions

Safe Work Australia has developed Managing psychosocial hazards at work: Code of Practice first published in July 2022 which outlines how persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) are to keep their workforce safe from psychological harm at work. 

It has become such a serious hazard within Australian workplaces that WHS Regulations include specific requirements from PCBUs for managing psychosocial risks. These requirements for PCBUs include:

• Identifying reasonably foreseeable hazards that could give rise to psychoscoial risks

• Eliminating risks, so far as is reasonably practicable

• If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risks – minimise the risks so far as is reasonably practicable  

• Maintaining implemented control measures so they remain effective, and

• Reviewing, and if necessary revising, control measures so as to maintain, so far as is reasonably practicable, a work environment that is without risks to health and safety. 

What is reasonably practicable in ensuring health and safety?

Reasonably practicable in this instance means anything reasonable which can be done to ensure health and safety considering:

(a)  the likelihood of the hazard or the risk concerned occurring; and

(b)  the degree of harm that might result from the hazard or the risk; and

(c)  what the person knows, or ought to reasonably know, about:

(i)  the hazard or the risk; and

(ii)  ways of eliminating or minimising the risk.

It also considers:

(d)  the availability and suitability of ways to eliminate or minimise the risk; and

(e)  after assessing the risk and the available ways of eliminating or minimising it, the cost to do so, including whether that is grossly disproportionate to the risk.

So, what does Safe Work Australia suggest?

Improving WHS outcomes across the board requires a collaborative effort. While part of their focus centers on small businesses, large scale operations are just as in-need for awareness and compliance with WHS regulations. Safe Work Australia encourages consultation with small business about communicating WHS requirements, and identifying training and gaps in knowledge. The same applies to businesses with complex supply chains. It can be easy to lose sight 

This is where collaborating with worker representatives across your supply chain comes into play. In high-risk industries, it’s crucial to ensure everyone coming to work on your sites has the right knowledge and awareness of safe work practices, their individual WHS responsibilities, and that they collaborate with worker representatives and industries with diverse workforces to reach groups of workers with higher health and safety vulnerability in high-risk industries.

Contractor Management for Safety Outcomes

The greatest area for growth in WHS outcomes is beginning with your contractors. Contractor management can appear to be a simple process, but depending on the type of contracting workforce you engage, it’s actually rather complex. It depends on the type of work being contracted, the location the work is occurring, the expertise of people within your business, and the expertise of those you are contracting. There are concurrent safety duties which will apply to everyone. 

When thinking about contractor management, there is no one size fits all, but there are different factors to consider which will inform processes.

Within Queensland in September 2024, Resources Safety and Health Legislation Amendment Act 2024 has redefined what constitutes a contractor, especially within a mining environment. The change being there is now a formal definition. It’s important to consider if your current policies and procedures cover this. One of the impacts and associated changes is the specific requirements around service providers will be removed as they’ll effectively be documented in the definition of a contractor.

The general principles associated with contractor management include:

• A robust selection process, including pre-qualification of who are you contracting

• Ensuring there are clear contractual safety obligations

• Ongoing monitoring and auditing of safety performance and compliance.

This is where contractor pre-qualification and workforce management software comes into play. Depending on the work being undertaken by contractors, ensure the terms of your arrangements are fit for the tasks being completed under the arrangements and meeting different legislative requirements.

Above all else, you need to make sure there is clear communication around obligations to safety, both at a site and a contractor level. Every effort must be made to mitigate risk and communicate hazards. A thorough induction process is absolutely necessary, with appropriate supervision and monitoring to ensure continued safety of your contractors.  

Questions you should be asking:

• How much do you know about Work Health and Safety requirements? 

• How much is your workforce aware of their individual responsibility when it comes to Work Health and Safety?

• How clear are the expectations at your sites? 

• How thorough is your induction process in ensuring the people coming to work for you know their responsibilities and yours in relation to Work Health and Safety? 

• Is your workforce made up of staff or contractors–and have you identified if there are varying levels of responsibility? 

• Can your contractors complete their roles safely? 

• How thorough is your risk management procedure? Is there clearly visible signage notifying workers of identified risks? 

The next blog in this series will cover the importance of national coordination and data and intelligence gathering for improving WHS outcomes–and how risk management procedures and the visibility of your supply chain part a crucial role.

Interested in learning more? You can view this entire series of blogs below, as well as other relevant resources:

• The Future of Australian Health & Safety - Understanding a Shifting Landscape (Part One)
• The Future of Australian Health & Safety - Understanding a Shifting Landscape (Part Two)
• The Future of Australian Health & Safety - Understanding a Shifting Landscape (Part Three)
• Moving Towards the Future: Holistic Supply Chain Risk Mitigation​