Victoria’s psychological health regulations: what employers need to know

Victoria’s psychological health regulations started on 1 December 2025. They make it clear that employers must manage risks to mental health at work in a planned, structured way, just as they manage physical hazards.

This guide explains what the regulations require, what changed from the earlier draft, and how to get started. It is written for employers, HR teams, managers and boards. It is general information, not legal advice.

What are Victoria’s psychological health regulations?

وہ Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 sit under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (the OHS Act). They started on 1 December 2025.

The OHS Act has always defined health to include psychological health. What the new regulations add is a set of specific, step by step duties for managing psychosocial hazards.

A psychosocial hazard is something about the way work is designed, managed or carried out, or about how people at work interact, that can cause a harmful psychological response. Examples include bullying, sexual harassment, aggression, high job demands and exposure to traumatic events or content.

When the regulations started, the Victorian Government reported that 42% of workers with a mental injury returned to work within six months in the previous financial year, compared with 75% of workers with a physical injury. Prevention matters.

What employers must do

The regulations set out three core duties. You must do each of these so far as is reasonably practicable (what is reasonable to do, given the risk and the options available).

1. Identify psychosocial hazards

Look at how work is actually done. Useful sources include:

• conversations with employees and health and safety representatives (HSRs)
• incident reports, complaints and investigation findings
• sick leave, overtime, turnover and exit interview data
• workers compensation claims and employee assistance program (EAP) trends
• validated staff surveys that measure psychosocial hazards

WorkSafe’s compliance code makes an important point: a lack of reported incidents does not mean hazards are absent. It may mean people are reluctant to speak up.

2. Control the risks

First, try to eliminate the risk. If that is not reasonably practicable, reduce it by changing one or more of:

• the management of work
• plant (equipment)
• systems of work
• work design
• the workplace environment

Information, instruction and training still have a place, but with limits. According to WorkSafe’s FAQs, they can only be used on their own when none of the other controls are reasonably practicable. When you combine controls, training must not be the main one.

In plain terms, a resilience session or a wellbeing webinar will not, by itself, meet your duty if the real problem is unmanageable workloads or unclear roles.

3. Review and revise controls

You must review your controls, and change them if needed, when:

• you plan a change at work that is likely to change a psychosocial risk
• you get new information about a psychosocial hazard
• an employee reports a psychological injury or a psychosocial hazard
• a notifiable incident involving a psychosocial hazard occurs
• an HSR requests a review

What changed from the draft regulations

If you followed the consultation, you may remember two proposals that did not make it into the final version.

• Written prevention plans. The draft proposed mandatory prevention plans for certain hazards. The final regulations do not require them. WorkSafe has published an optional prevention plan template that many employers find useful for recording their approach.
• Reporting to WorkSafe. The draft proposed regular reporting of psychosocial complaints by larger employers. As the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office notes, this was removed from the final regulations.

Even without a legal requirement, writing down how you identified hazards, what you decided and why is good practice. It helps you show your reasoning if WorkSafe asks.

The compliance code and consultation

WorkSafe released the Compliance Code: Psychological health in September 2025. It explains the duties with examples and lists common hazards, including low job control, poor support, low role clarity, poor organisational justice (unfair processes or decisions) and remote or isolated work.

The code is practical guidance. If you follow it for a duty it covers, you are taken to have complied with that duty.

Consultation is also a legal duty under the OHS Act. You must consult employees, and HSRs where they exist, when identifying hazards, assessing risks and deciding on controls. The people doing the work often know where the pressure points are.

WorkSafe has said inspectors will consider that some businesses need time to adjust. However, the duties applied in full from the start date.

Common pitfalls to avoid

Many organisations already care about wellbeing. The regulations ask for something more specific. Watch for these gaps:

• Relying on an EAP. An employee assistance program supports people after harm has started. It does not remove the cause.
• Treating it as an HR issue only. Psychosocial risk belongs in your OHS system, with the same planning, records and reporting as physical risks.
• Surveys with no follow up. Asking staff about workload and then doing nothing can damage trust. Share what you heard and what you will change.
• Looking only at behaviour. Bullying and harassment matter, but so do quieter hazards like chronic understaffing, unclear roles and poorly managed change.
• Forgetting how hazards combine. High demands plus low support plus remote work creates more risk than any one of these alone.

Leaders set the tone. When managers are given the time, skills and authority to fix work problems, controls are more likely to hold.

A practical starting plan

1. Assign ownership. Name a senior person responsible and brief your board or leadership team.
2. Gather what you already know. Pull together complaints, leave data, claims and survey results.
3. Consult. Run small group discussions or a validated survey. Ask about workload, support, clarity and conflict.
4. Prioritise. Focus first on hazards that are frequent, long lasting or severe, and on groups most exposed.
5. Change the work. Adjust staffing, deadlines, rosters, reporting lines or the physical environment before relying on training.
6. Build people capability as a support. Train managers to spot early signs of distress and respond well.
7. Record and review. Keep notes, set review dates and act on the triggers above.

Our article on psychosocial hazards at work gives examples of controls for common hazards.

Invictus Health کیسے مدد کر سکتا ہے

Our psychologists and neuropsychologists work with organisations on the people side of psychological health. This sits alongside, and does not replace, your own risk management and legal advice.

• Workplace programs, including resilience workshops, understanding and managing moral injury, and leadership coaching and culture training.
• Mental Health First Aid training, including a version for leaders and boards.
• Workplace mediation for conflict between colleagues, where it is safe and suitable.

For questions about your legal obligations, contact the WorkSafe Advisory Service on 1800 136 089 or speak with a workplace lawyer.