Psychosocial hazards for Commonwealth workplaces and Comcare
Short answer
For Commonwealth employers and licensed self-insurers, Comcare regulates psychosocial hazards under the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth). Most readers will be under a state regulator instead. This guide is not yet checked against Comcare’s own page. Haznote adds a confidential route for workers.
What the regulator says
Comcare is the regulator for Commonwealth employers and licensed self-insurers. If your workplace is not one of those, your state or territory regulator applies and the other guides in this series are the right ones. State regulators, including WorkSafe Queensland, point Commonwealth employers to Comcare for their health and safety laws.
What is particular to Cth
This page is deliberately short on specifics. We haven’t been able to check Comcare’s pages against our automatic checks yet, so we state no commencement date or instrument as fact. The page will be updated when those checks pass. Until then, read Comcare’s own guidance for the current rules and treat this page as a pointer, not a source.
A worked example
A defence-housing maintenance crew on a Commonwealth estate has a site coordinator who regularly shouts at the youngest workers. One of them reports it confidentially. The person handling it checks whether the workplace falls under Comcare or a state regulator, then handles the matter under the right framework and keeps the record.
What a useful record looks like
If you’re unsure which regulator applies, record the report and settle the regulator afterwards. A report saved with its time, place and words can be classified under Comcare or a state regulator later, once someone has checked who covers the workplace. A conversation that was never written down can’t be recovered. That’s the main reason to start the record the day the worker speaks up, even if the regulator question is still open.
How Haznote handles it
Haznote routes a confidential report to the company’s confidential contact and keeps the record. It doesn’t choose the regulator for Commonwealth workplaces; a person does that.
What the regulator says
Each row shows the source’s own words, who published them and when they were last checked by script.
| Item | What it says | Source and check date |
|---|---|---|
| Instrument | Not verified yet. Not yet checked against the source, or the check is out of date. | Comcare |
Plain answers.
Is Comcare my regulator?
If your workplace is a Commonwealth employer or a Comcare licensee, yes. Otherwise your state regulator applies.
Why is this page short on detail?
The checks against Comcare’s pages have not passed yet, so this page prints what has been checked and nothing beyond it.
Where do I find the rules?
Comcare publishes them. This page links to its psychosocial hazards page.
Where this comes from.
- Psychosocial hazards · Comcare
General information, not legal advice. Check the current rules with Comcare.
Give workers a confidential route that skips the site manager.
Run it on one site and see the first report land in the manager’s list.