is stress an official OHS issue in Australia?

Hi,

We hear of people going on "stress leave", which is essentially "sick leave" due to stress. But is "stress" now an official OHS issue for employers here in Australia ?

I don't think it is. I've yet to meet an OHS professional in Australia who believed that "stress" was part of their remit (this is not a criticism).

But will it become so?

It already is in the UK, where Board Director/CEOs, HR managers, H&S managers and Line Managers all have specific responsibilities in the successful prevention of stress.

I have both a professional and personal interest in this so I would love to hear your views on this topic!

Cheers,
Sally

I think it depends on the cause of stress, if it is caused by bullying or harrassment then it definitely should be part of an OH&S issue. Personaly I am concerned about the Health of all our staff and at least wish to be made aware if staff are off work for "stress"

I believe the answer is yes. Judging by what has happened in the UK managing stress will become part of the OHS remit. There is a broad spectrum of responsibility in managing stress in the UK, This covers senior and line managers, OHS, HR and employees themselves. Stress in the UK has become the new "Back Pain" problem.

Unfortunately it is not easy to diagnose and all it takes is a visit to your doctor with complaints of insomnia, heart palpitations, nightmares, loss of appetite etc, caused by worry over work related aspects and you can get signed off for a month with a bottle of tranquilisers.

High court rulings in the UK have laid out guidelines that can help companies to comply with their duty of care when managing stress. Having a stress management policy should be the first priority and this will almost definitely fall to the OHS department in conjunction with HR to set up. I have an example stress management policy if anyone is interested.

An important part of the high court rulings is that employees have a duty to tell their employers if they are beginning to suffer any stress from work related activities. So if you have a policy that has been implemented, relayed to all and you have conducted appropriate risk assessments and training, it can prevent claims from being awarded if the employee takes them self of to the doctor and suddenly springs the problem upon you.

The biggest problem facing all businesses is identifying the genuine cases because human nature will prevail and some of the cases will be from the dishonest side of society. This is bound to cause some cynicism as it costs a lot of time money and effort to deal with stress.

In Victoria, stress is definately an OHS issue. WorkSafe Victoria have released some guidance material which can be found at:
http://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/wps/w...ons/stresswise

It was written with the public sector in mind, but can easily be adapted for most workplaces.
Cheers
Jim

Hi Safetyson
I would be interested in looking at your example stress management policy. It is a growing problem at our workplace and we are looking at ways to address it and provide assistance that works as well seperating the real cases from the phony.
JohnE

My view is that stress became an OHS issue when the first stress ca
Liam's were accepted as compensible injuries. Governments then sought to try and mitigate this by drafting regulation or codes of practice on "stress". These were then put under OHS Legislation as, in my view, an existing enforcement regime already existed. In short, if stress is an injury then it must be a safety issue.

I do not believe that existing OHS training and education equip OHS practitioners with the knowledge nor skill to deal with stress. The profession that is equipped are psychologists.

Hi All, I am getting stressed (LOL) finding it hard to secure a Safety Advisor position. C.IV OH&S & TAE, S11 & Mining Supervisor, TBOSIET & STCW95.
2.5yrs experience trying to get back in after 2 yrs in another field.
Any ideas?

Hi all,
a couple of points I think worthy of some thought on this issue.
Firstly - you will always get workers comp. claims that could be considered fake or phony. But keep in mind the 80/20 rule ie: 80% are genuine and as such, I always treat all cases as if they were genuine.
Secondly - I agree with Peter in that assessment and treatment for stress related disorders should be left to Health professionals. OHS practitioners should only provide the conduit between the worker and these health professionals whilst ensuring that the employers interests are sufficiently maintained.
Lastly - Quite a number of "modern" organisations are now providing Employee Assistance Programs which provide an early intervention strategy and may in fact limit the loss of time and productivity of an injured employee dealing with stress. These EAP's provide a range of services and connect with professionals, counsellors and other allied health professionals. Additionally, the service can be provided with total confidentiality for the injured worker which can sometimes be a drawback of the more traditional Human Resource department approach, whereby every man and his dog knows about the problem.
Work related stress is definitely an OHS issue in Australia and is only set to become bigger and bigger as employers demands on employees continue to grow.
Cheers for now

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Originally Posted by trms

Work related stress is definitely an OHS issue in Australia and is only set to become bigger and bigger as employers demands on employees continue to grow.

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I have to admit this is where my personal interests lie. My husband works in a profession where the demands are such at certain times of the year that he has to work 60-70 hours per week. There is no choice in the matter, the work simply must be done. He actually copes with it quite well but I believe that the employer's expectations are quite unrealistic at times and create significant risks for the employees to both physical and mental health as well as family life or personal relationships.

I am a Lifestyle Mentor in Adelaide. My professional background of over 30 years is in recreation planning and development (I have been a Lifestyle Mentor for 8 years). I have evolved a novel approach to the issue of the links between OHS and emotional stress. It's attracting increasing business interest.

I see three issues here:
1) OHS has traditionally been related to physical safety procedures based on compliance requirements. Emotional/mental health/stress doesn't readily fit that system
2)The pressures on mental health are 24/7, not just stress at work, and the final responsibility for stress management lies with the individual
3)While it's very difficult to reduce stress in today's frenetic lifestyle, there is much that can be done to build resilience and the energy to better manage one's stress and basically to stay mentally healthy.


Peter Nicholls
Australia's People Gardener

It's interesting also that because of social media, emails and other technological aids to business, that work pressure is almost all-pervasive, no matter what time of day or night. Does this mean that occupational mental health/stress risk management obligations are no longer limited to the workplace? It's always been much more clear-cut when it comes to physical work safety. Worth thinking about.

I would be enthusiastic about looking at your example pressure control plan. It is a increasing issue at our office and we are looking at methods to deal with it and offer support that performs as well separating the actual situations from the fake.....

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Originally Posted by Brovy

I would be enthusiastic about looking at your example pressure control plan. It is a increasing issue at our office and we are looking at methods to deal with it and offer support that performs as well separating the actual situations from the fake.....

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It is a simple approach but with powerful and widespread benefits. I shall try to explain in a few sentences.

The principle is that a passionate interest totally remote from work pressures not only gives the worker some relief from stress but positively improves self esteem, self confidence, lateral thinking, talent and skill development and maximized development of one's potential to blossom. I have almost completed what I call a Positive Position Statement on the issue of Workers Health and Safety (the name is changed under the new legislation).
Key points are
[LIST] The mind is now the workplace - useable for work at any time and any place 24/7
[LIST] The employer has a legal responsibility to manage OHS stress risks (bearing in mind the above first point)

• WHS legislation (and the concept of compliance) is inappropriate for managing emotional stress

the way to reduce the risk is to find ways of helping people to stay mentally strong and healthy.
The concept of leisure has changed under modern day constant pressure and stress from something to do in 'free time' to it's time immemorial role of being "nature's stress manager" - energizing the mind, body and spirit to cope with stress and build resilience
It's a new concept for business to accept but my 40 years of working professionally in recreeation and leisure planning and development tells me it works - I am my own proof.
Lot's more to tell. If you can contact me privately I can arrange to give you a copy of my Position Statement and direct you to other information I have compiled.

Psychosocial Hazards are real and are part of the OHS practitioners ever increasing field. This actually costs insurers millions of $'s per year, one of the biggest professions to suffer from this is the Teaching profession. It is very hard to prove/disprove and investigators can take weeks even months on individual cases. Due to its nature you can not press too hard for answers as if the stress exists you do not want to exacerbate this condition with undue pressure. With regard to the work place there can be pointers to stresses. How the staff interact with each other, how the managers and supervisors talk to their staff, how strong is the manager, is there an open door policy, regular meetings and can staff contact the OHS department directly without fear of retribution, is it confidential? Is the staffing level sufficient to cope with the growth, are phones being answered appropriately and information passed, does everyone know their role and team work is encouraged? It is a very diverse subject and you can carry on writing about this, bullying, long hours, working through breaks and so on.

Workplace Stress is a psychological phenomenon and can't be measured or quantified as everyone is different. Although a few countries lump such factors of Human Resource Management (to include bullying) into Occupational Health, they don't belong there. (A worker can always refuse overtime work (paid), or environmental differential pay (like hot work), if it's not a condition of employment (part of the job description) without fear of retribution.) Our field is a medical field where we can recognize/identify hazards, take measurements as possible, interpret results based upon standards, and make recommendations to mitigate the hazards. I have seen this trend here in AU/NZ and the field isn't practiced anywhere in the world like this except here. We are trained in Safety, Occupational Health and a few us also in Environmental Engineering. If an employee were to come to me to ask about feelings of work stress, I would refer them to their clinical physician, I have absolutely no business getting in between doctor/patient confidentiality. If an employee were to come to me about workplace bullying, I would recommend the person contact his supervisor and the HR Staff in a team meeting to resolve it. Some people have very thin skins (can't take criticism-confusing this with bullying) - like sexual harassment, it's best to confront it early (nipped in the bud) and head-on so everyone is on the same page.

Here in Australia the field of OH&S is practiced far differently than it is in most western countries. It is two tiered. One tier is the scientific practices of safety engineering and (occupational medicine) industrial hygiene, and the other tier is HR-based which deals with insurance: i.e., Return to Work, Labor Policy, and compensation programs. The two tiers have some interface, but are largely unrelated. Current practice is leaning toward placing WorkPlace Bullying Programs in the HR tier along with such programs as Sexual Harassment, and discrimination due to age, race, creed, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. When discussing safety with others it is important to let them know which part of the OH&S tier your part of to avoid any misunderstandings. Most large corporations are including the HR Labor policy regarding OHS&E in their public CSR statement.

I think stress is a huge problem and a genuine OH&S issue.

I have offered counseling to stressed staff so they can find coping strategies to handle stress.
The company I work for use a great counseling service and it helps , (I know because I tried it)
That is only part of the problem tho, every effort should be looked into , work load, work systems should be under constant scrutiny.
This is not just an OH&S issue its also good business thinking to keep people in tip top condition.

An area that needs the most work is stress at work caused by workplace psychopaths.

If you have them, you have big problems.

I have seen some terrible things in workplaces caused by "WPs"

I bet every person that reads this will have seen the same thing.

The trouble is WPs are like a computer virus, very hard to uncover and almost impossible to get rid of.

I don't have problems with WPs, as a senior mgr, I fire them and let them create problems for someone else's program. There is simply no room for bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace... the company I work for has a zero tolerance policy and all the employees have to sign it before being hired on to acknowledge their understanding. Sure people are given a fair go; the benefit of the doubt... but when it's all said and done, it is really difficult to take back was said or done and put a positive spin on it. The job of any business is to create a positive and efficient corporate culture... this is done over years of dedicated hard work on improving the organizational climate. One bad employee can be devastating to the progress the organization is making to move forward towards organizational maturity. The safety program is just one aspect of the corp culture. Our aim is always to instill work safe behaviors that employees will do the right thing when no one is looking!

Lucky you Rob

There must be hundreds of employers that hang out the zero tolerance shingle regarding bullying.

But very few that actually follow through.

I got completely shafted by the WA Dept of Agriculture when I tried to use their system to defend myself against a WP.

Its a very difficult problem, mainly because its so big and still considered acceptable by so many people.(if you judge people by their actions and not their words)

ABC radio had some good coverage this weekend past.