Psychosocial hazards in NSW: the regulation and SafeWork NSW
Short answer
In NSW, psychosocial hazards are managed like any other workplace hazard, under the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025. SafeWork NSW points businesses to that regulation, to the hierarchy of controls and to section 55D on sexual harassment. Haznote gives workers a confidential route that skips the site manager.
Automatically checked against SafeWork NSW on 1 Nov 2026.
What the regulator says
SafeWork NSW describes psychosocial hazards as the parts of work that can harm mental health: workload, poor support, bullying, harassment, violence and traumatic events. Its page tells businesses to use the hierarchy of controls. They should also consider workplace design and systems of work, the same way they would for a physical hazard.
What is particular to NSW
The regulation named on the NSW page is the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025, and it singles out sexual harassment in section 55D. For incidents and assaults, SafeWork NSW links a traumatic event management plan, a practical document for workplaces to use after a traumatic event. The page doesn’t give the date the original psychosocial rules began, so we don’t either.
A worked example
A trade assistant on a Penrith project tells a colleague the foreman keeps giving him the worst jobs and swears at him in front of the crew. He doesn’t want to go to the foreman’s manager, so he marks a report confidential. It goes to the company’s confidential contact. That person treats it as a psychosocial matter, not a site hazard, and handles it away from the site manager.
What a useful record looks like
A record that helps later has four parts. What the worker said, in their own words. When and where it was raised. What the company decided, and why. What changed afterwards. Haznote holds the opening two automatically. The person handling the matter writes the last two. If SafeWork NSW ever asks what was done, those four parts tell the story without anyone trying to remember it.
How Haznote handles it
Haznote lets a worker mark a report confidential so it goes to the company’s confidential contact and not to the site manager. It doesn’t decide whether something is bullying or a breach of the regulation; people do.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Regulation | PCBUs have a responsibility under Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 to manage hazards and risks in the workplace. Source says: | SafeWork NSW Checked 1 Nov 2026 |
| Sexual harassment | For guidance on managing the WHS risks of sexual harassment, SafeWork NSW refers to section 55D of the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2025. Source says: | SafeWork NSW Checked 1 Nov 2026 |
| Controls | Use the hierarchy of controls, and consider workplace design and systems of work, when minimising the risk of harm from psychosocial hazards. Source says: | SafeWork NSW Checked 1 Nov 2026 |
| After an incident | A traumatic event management plan is a practical document to help workplaces respond to traumatic events such as incidents and assaults. Source says: | SafeWork NSW Checked 1 Nov 2026 |
Plain answers.
Is bullying a psychosocial hazard?
SafeWork NSW lists bullying and harassment among the psychosocial hazards it describes.
Where is sexual harassment mentioned?
SafeWork NSW points to section 55D of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025.
Does Haznote investigate psychosocial reports?
No. It routes a confidential report to the company’s confidential contact and keeps the record. Investigation is a human process.
Where this comes from.
- Psychosocial hazards · SafeWork NSW
General information, not legal advice. Check the current rules with SafeWork NSW.
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.