Psychosocial hazards in Victoria
Victoria does not operate under the model WHS laws. It has its own regime — the Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025, which commenced on 1 December 2025, alongside the Compliance Code: Psychological health.
What the regulations require
So far as is reasonably practicable, Victorian employers must identify psychosocial hazards, eliminate the associated risks, and — where elimination is not reasonably practicable — reduce those risks by altering the management of work, systems of work, the design of work, plant, or the workplace environment, or by providing information, instruction and training.
Controls must be reviewed and revised on specified triggers, including a change to systems of work, new information, an employee reporting a psychological injury or psychosocial hazard, a notifiable incident, or a request from a health and safety representative.
The Victorian rule that catches people out
Information, instruction and training may only be used exclusively as a control where none of the higher-order controls are reasonably practicable. Where a combination of controls is used, training must not be the predominant one.
In practice: a policy, an EAP and an annual training module are unlikely to be enough on their own. The regulations push you toward changing how work is designed and managed.
Two things that are NOT required — despite what you may have read
The 2022 exposure draft contained two obligations that were removed before the regulations commenced. A surprising amount of published guidance still states them as current law:
- Written prevention plans are not mandatory. WorkSafe Victoria publishes a template and encourages its use, but using it is voluntary.
- There is no six-monthly reporting obligation. The proposed requirement for employers with 50 or more employees to report de-identified complaints to WorkSafe did not make it into the final regulations.
If a vendor or adviser has told you either of these is a legal requirement in Victoria, that information is out of date.
Who it applies to
All Victorian employers. There is no size threshold — the only size-based rule ever proposed was the 50+ reporting obligation, and it was dropped.
What employers are being asked to show
Hazard identification specific to your actual operation rather than a generic template, a structured view of likelihood and severity, controls that respect the hierarchy, genuine consultation with workers and health and safety representatives, and a system for reviewing controls when a trigger occurs.
PulseBench HQ covers the identification and consultation steps: an anonymous, repeatable survey across your workforce, with a record of what you asked, when, and what came back. See how the risk assessment works · Try the free team health check
Other states: New South Wales · Queensland
This page is general information, not legal advice. Check WorkSafe Victoria for the current position.