National Tradies Month Spotlight
This post steps back from specific hazards to look at a process that underpins all of them: consultation.
Consultation is not a box-ticking exercise before implementing a decision that has already been made. Under the safety legislation across Australia, it is a legal duty. In the context of psychosocial risk management specifically, it is also the most practical tool an employer has. The reason is simple: the people doing the work know what is happening on site in ways that management cannot see from the outside.
What consultation actually means
The safety laws are specific about what consultation requires. It is not a suggestion box or a survey sent to workers after a decision has been made. Genuine consultation means:
- Sharing relevant information with workers about the WHS matter being considered
- Giving workers a reasonable opportunity to express their views and raise concerns
- Taking those views into account before making decisions
- Advising workers of the outcome, what decision was made and why
That last point is often skipped. Workers who raise concerns and never hear what happened to them quickly learn that consultation is performative. Once that trust is gone, it is very hard to rebuild.
If workers have a health and safety representative (HSR), that person must be included in the consultation process. HSRs have specific powers under the safety legislation, including the right to issue provisional improvement notices and direct work to cease in the presence of a serious risk. They are not optional participants in the process.
When you must consult on psychosocial hazards
Under the model WHS laws and Victoria's OHS Act, PCBUs and employers must consult with workers when:
- Identifying psychosocial hazards and assessing the risks they create
- Making decisions about how to eliminate or control psychosocial risks
- Proposing changes to the workplace, work processes, or work systems that may affect psychological health
- Making decisions about procedures for monitoring worker health, or for resolving WHS issues
In practice, this means consultation should be built into your psychosocial risk management process from the start, not added at the end as a sign-off step. You cannot do a credible psychosocial hazard assessment without talking to the workers who are exposed to the hazards.
"Workers often have the clearest view of what is actually happening on site. An employer who skips consultation is managing risks they have not properly seen."
Why psychosocial hazards specifically require consultation
Mental health claims have increased by 161% over the past decade in Australia. Yet many of the psychosocial hazards driving them are invisible to management without deliberate consultation.
Mental health claims also result in nearly five times more time off work than physical injury claims, making early identification through consultation a significant financial lever, not just a compliance one.
Physical hazards are often visible. A missing handrail, an unguarded machine, an unsecured load, these can be spotted in a site inspection. Psychosocial hazards generally cannot. Excessive workloads, role confusion, poor relationships, or a culture where speaking up is unsafe, are only visible if someone tells you about them, or if you create conditions where workers feel able to raise them.
This is what makes consultation uniquely important for psychosocial risk management. The hazard assessment itself depends on it. A risk register built without worker input is, at best, incomplete. At worst, it gives a false sense that the risks are understood when they are not.
Research on construction-specific interventions supports this. Studies of structured, evidence-based approaches, including ones that embedded visible leadership commitment and genuine worker participation, found statistically significant reductions in psychological distress following implementation. The participation was not incidental to the outcome. It was part of what produced it.
What consultation is not
It is worth being clear about what does not constitute consultation under the WHS framework.
- Sending a survey and not acting on the results is not consultation.
- Telling workers about a decision after it has been made is not consultation.
- Holding a toolbox talk where workers are talked at rather than genuinely asked for their views is not consultation.
- Consulting with one or two workers while excluding others who are directly affected is not adequate consultation.
- Going through the motions so you can document that consultation occurred is not consultation in spirit or substance.
Regulators and courts are increasingly willing to look past the documentation and ask whether genuine engagement actually took place.
Important: a consultation record that shows workers were asked and management proceeded without addressing their concerns is not protection from liability. It is evidence that management was aware of a risk and chose not to act on it.
Practical consultation approaches for construction sites
Construction sites present specific challenges for consultation: workforce turnover, multiple subcontractors, shift work, language diversity, and a culture that can make it difficult for workers, particularly junior ones, to speak candidly. None of these are reasons not to consult. They are reasons to be thoughtful about how you do it.
Some approaches that work in construction:
- Regular structured check-ins as part of site meetings, not just physical safety, but how the work is going, what is creating pressure, what feels unmanageable
- Anonymous pulse surveys for sites where workers may not feel safe speaking openly, with results fed back and actioned visibly
- Direct engagement with subcontractors as well as your own workforce, their workers are on your site and their psychosocial hazards are your responsibility as principal contractor
- HSR involvement from the start of any psychosocial hazard identification or risk assessment process
- Closing the loop by telling workers what you heard and what you are doing about it, even when the answer is that the concern is outside your control
- Making it easy to raise concerns without formal process, having a conversation with a supervisor, a text to a site manager, a note to an HSR before things escalate
The goal is not to eliminate all discomfort from work. It is to understand what is actually happening so that genuine hazards can be managed and workers feel that raising concerns has a point.
For workers: consultation is a right, not a favour
If your employer is making decisions about work arrangements, workloads, or workplace conditions that affect your psychological health, you have a legal right to be consulted, not just informed after the fact.
- If your workplace has an HSR, they are there to represent your work group in exactly these situations. Use them.
- If you raise concerns in a consultation process and nothing happens, that is information worth documenting. Note the date, what you raised, who you raised it with, and what the response was.
- If you do not feel safe raising concerns directly, your HSR can raise them on your behalf, or you can contact your state WHS regulator.
National Tradies Month is built on the idea that talking about what is actually happening at work can save lives. Consultation is not a corporate process. It is a mechanism for that conversation to reach people who can act on it.
For employers: the business case is clear
Beyond the legal requirement, the evidence on what genuine consultation delivers is consistent. Workplaces where workers are meaningfully involved in identifying and managing psychosocial hazards have lower rates of psychological injury, lower absenteeism, and lower turnover. Workers who trust that their concerns will be heard and acted on are more likely to raise issues early before they become claims.
The alternative is managing psychosocial risks without worker input, which means managing risks you cannot properly see. That is not risk management. It is risk exposure with extra paperwork.
Resources
- Safe Work Australia, Consultation: safeworkaustralia.gov.au/safety-topic/managing-health-and-safety/consultation
- Safe Work Australia, Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work (Model Code of Practice): safeworkaustralia.gov.au
- MATES in Construction: matesinconstruction.com.au | 1300 642 111
- Lifeline: 13 11 14
- Beyond Blue: beyondblue.org.au | 1300 22 4636