Consulting with workers about mental health

Duty to consult

Under the model work health and safety laws, persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) have a duty to consult with workers about health and safety, including when identifying psychosocial hazards and risks in the workplace and making decisions about how to manage those risks.

Beyond compliance, consultation also has many benefits to organisations including:

• actively engaging workers who understand and implement safety decisions
• making better decisions about how to carry out work safely
• identifying and fixing issues early
• improving cooperation, trust and positive working relationships.

If workers are represented by a health and safety representative (HSR) you must involve them in any consultation on health and safety matters. 

When to consult workers

Under the model work health and safety laws, you must consult with workers and any HSRs when identifying and managing health and safety risks and when proposing changes that may affect the health or safety of your workers.

PCBUs must also consult with workers when making decisions about how to consult or when resolving health and safety issues.

Regular consultation is an essential part of managing health and safety. It allows you to identify and fix potential problems early, rather than consulting only when issues arise.

You must consult as far as is reasonably practicable with workers who carry out work for you and who are (or are likely to be) directly affected by a health and safety matter.

Effective consultation

Consultation is a 2-way process between you and your workers where you talk to each other about health and safety matters. It requires you to share relevant information with workers, give them reasonable opportunities to express their views and account for their views when making decisions. You must also advise workers of the outcomes of the consultation in a timely way.

How to consult

You can consult with your workers in a range of ways, depending on:

• the size of the business and how it is structured
• the way work is arranged and where workers are located
• what suits your workers and how they want to be consulted
• the complexity, frequency and urgency of issues that require consultation.

Approaches range from a formal, structured process with HSRs and committees, to talking directly to workers and considering their views.

For more information on consulting with your workers, see Consultation | Safe Work Australia.

This summary was adapted from content created by Safe Work Australia with permission.