National Safe Work Month encourages everyone to prioritise safety in the workplace and make work free from physical and psychological harm.

The theme ‘for everyone’s safety, work safely’ highlights how individuals and organisations can work together to protect workers’ mental and physical health by eliminating and managing risks at work.

Safe Work Australia (SWA) data shows that each year up to 200 workers are fatally injured at work and around 120,000 workers are compensated for a serious work-related injury or illness.

Mental health conditions continue to grow in prevalence, accounting for 9 per cent of all serious workers’ compensation claims in 2020-21, a 55.6 per cent increase since 2016-17.

Psychosocial hazards are those that can cause harm through creating stress. While stress itself is not an injury, if it becomes frequent, prolonged or severe, stress can cause psychological and physical harm.

Psychological harm or injuries from psychosocial hazards include conditions such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep disorders. Psychosocial hazards can also lead to physical injuries, including musculoskeletal injury, chronic disease and injury following fatigue-related workplace incidents.

On average, work-related psychological injuries have longer recovery times, higher costs, and require more time away from work.

Employers have a primary duty to eliminate or minimise physical psychosocial risks so far as is reasonably practicable.

Managing hazards at work not only protects workers, it also benefits businesses by improving organisational performance and productivity.

Victorian Chamber General Manager Workplace Relations and Safety Amy Bell says: “Building a physically and mentally safe workplace starts with the basics. It’s about understanding your obligations, getting to grips with compliance and putting those fundamental work policies and procedures in place.

“No matter where you are on your journey, if you don’t know where to start, or have programs in place and need to understand what’s next, get in touch with our workplace relations and wellbeing team for all your mental health and wellbeing needs.”

For information on National Safe Work Month resources, go to safeworkmonth.swa.gov.au.

How the Victorian Chamber can help

Employers have a legal, financial and moral obligation to make sure your employees go home safe.

Whether you need safety training for your managers or employees, or specialised consulting to manage occupational health and safety or mental health and wellbeing, the Victorian Chamber’s team of consultants and trainers have a diverse mixture of professional backgrounds and industry experience to support you on your safety journey.