A Queensland council paid $2.35 million to a former employee last year. Not for a physical injury. For a psychiatric injury caused by a fabricated email that a third party wrote in her name — and which the council failed to publicly correct. That figure is the point of this article. Employers have adjusted to the idea that psychological injury generates
What’s the real issue? Having a psychosocial health and safety policy is not the same as managing psychosocial risk and regulators increasingly treat the gap as a breach. The most common mistake we see is treating this as an HR document rather than a WHS obligation owned by senior leadership exactly the “Band-Aid solution” the Model Code of Practice warns against. A
Managing Psychosocial Risks in the Workplace: Why a Policy Alone Won’t Protect You Read More »
A well-run workplace investigation is one of the strongest risk-management tools an Australian employer has. Done properly, it gives you a defensible basis to act on misconduct. Done poorly, the investigation itself becomes the liability — often costing more than the original complaint. The difference comes down to process: right scope, procedural fairness, privilege considered early, and
Performance-manage an underperformer, restructure a team or investigate a bullying complaint, and you are no longer working within employment law alone. That decision now sits inside your work health and safety duty — and a process that is perfectly lawful under the Fair Work Act can still expose you under WHS legislation. The answer is not to