Browsing: Health and mental wellbeing | Page 1

Employers have been urged to create proper onboarding programs for new managers, and give them the skills to manage up, with a large proportion of new middle managers being unprepared for their responsibilities and experiencing burnout.

• Safety reforms flagged after 58 COVID charges withdrawn; and
  
• Changes to workplace exposure standards applied in ACT.

One in seven Australian workers admit to using technology to s-xually harass someone at work, but many don't believe it is a workplace issue, according to a major report, which explains what employers can do to tackle the issue.

A major employer has been fined $1.2 million for WHS recklessness, after a worker was exposed to a "filthy" workplace environment "year after year", and developed a serious occupational disease.

A study of a relatively young worker with a 10-year history of forgetfulness and decreasing mental functions has highlighted the significant risks posed by a common workplace substance, the need to closely monitor the health of staff, and the immediate benefits of compliant safety controls.

Ahead of Workers' Memorial Day, and in light of the recent stabbing deaths at Westfield Bondi Junction, employers have been urged to ensure they always have clear emergency safety plans in place, and provide workers with access to psychological support services.

More than 70 per cent of the world's workers are exposed to health, safety and mental health risks created by climate change, which extend way beyond excessive heat, the International Labour Organisation has warned.

• WHS ministers agree to harmonised exposure limits;
  
• Access to dust damages improved in WA;
  
• RTW body officially established in Vic; and
  
• Workers to be protected by new slow-down rules in SA.

Injured workers, and their employers, will be better protected from costly secondary psychological injuries by new provisions requiring insurers to actively provide early intervention services. The provisions are included in a Queensland Bill, which also creates Australia's longest list of cancers presumed, for workers' comp purposes, to be caused by firefighting duties.

Workplace cultures that promulgate the image of "bulletproof" workers that need to be tough to do their jobs can magnify the "insidious" effects of vicarious trauma, a top complex trauma expert says.