Psychosocial hazards are more challenging for employers to tackle than physical risks for many reasons, but there are also similarities in how they can be addressed, including through prevention-is-better-than-cure and early-intervention approaches, which will nearly always yield better outcomes, according to senior organisational psychologists.
A worker's 18 grounds of appeal against an injury ruling have been dismissed, with a court upholding findings that he was not bullied by his managers and all the cited management actions taken against him were reasonable.
A tribunal has found that while workplace factors only made up one-tenth of the contributing factors to a worker's psychological condition, his employment was still a "significant" contributor.
A commission has rejected an employer's contentions that: a "violent and painful" work incident could not have caused a worker's stress disorder; and her ability to undertake "suitable duties" not long after the incident blocked her incapacity claim.
A worker who felt undue pressure to perform tasks beyond her work restrictions, after her post-surgery return-to-work plan was not communicated to management, has successfully argued she has compensable a psychological injury.
In an ongoing case involving a worker claiming she was bullied by being barred from working from home, a court has clarified when a person has a workplace right to expect their employer to comply with the Fair Work Act's anti-bullying provisions.
An employer has successfully argued it did not unfairly dismiss an absent worker after an independent medical examination (IME) found "malignant resentment" prevented her from ever being fit to return.
A worker has failed to block his employer from accessing government records of his past driving offences and related matters, with a tribunal ruling they have "adjectival relevance" to the worker's psychological injury claim.
The majority of businesses are impacted by mental health issues and what a compliant mental health strategy should look like remains murky, but employers are expected to apply the "highest level of controls" to psychosocial risks, according to a peak employer organisation.
A workplace team leader breached privacy rules by using an expired certificate of capacity, involving a psychological injury, to determine that a worker wasn't suitable for a higher role, a tribunal has declared.
