Compliance guide · Australia
Psychosocial hazards at work.
Australian work health and safety law now treats psychological harm the way it treats physical harm: as a hazard employers must identify and control. Two of the named psychosocial hazards - remote or isolated work, and exposure to violence and aggression - sit exactly where lone-worker safety lives.
What psychosocial hazards are
A psychosocial hazard is anything in the design or management of work that can cause psychological harm - and, often, physical harm too. Safe Work Australia publishes a model Code of Practice, Managing psychosocial hazards at work, and the model WHS Regulations include specific duties to identify psychosocial hazards and manage the associated risks. The duty sits alongside, and is enforced the same way as, the duty to manage physical hazards.
The commonly-cited psychosocial hazards include:
- Remote or isolated work Working alone, away from support, with limited means to summon help.
- Exposure to violence and aggression Including from clients, patients or the public - occupational violence.
- High job demands
- Low job control
- Poor support
- Low role clarity
- Poor organisational change management
- Inadequate reward and recognition
- Poor organisational justice
- Traumatic events or material
- Harassment, including sexual harassment
- Bullying
- Conflict or poor workplace relationships
Highlighted: the two hazards that lone-worker safety controls address most directly.
Where duress systems fit
Two of the named psychosocial hazards are, in practical terms, the reason lone-worker safety exists:
- Remote or isolated work. Isolation itself is a recognised psychosocial hazard - low support, nobody nearby when something goes wrong. A monitored system with reliable communication is a direct control.
- Exposure to violence and aggression. Occupational violence is a named hazard, and the fear that follows an incident is a recognised harm even without physical injury. A silent, reliable way to summon help - and evidence afterwards - addresses both.
There is an honest limit worth stating: regulators expect a hierarchy of controls, with work-design measures considered first. A duress system is one control within a compliant approach to these hazards - an important one for isolation and violence, but not the whole of it.
This is general information, not legal advice. The requirements - and their commencement and enforcement - vary by state and territory and change over time. Check the current position with Safe Work Australia and your state or territory WHS regulator, and see our state-by-state legislation guide for who regulates where.
Psychosocial hazards by state
The instrument and its timing differ by jurisdiction. Start with yours: