Victoria's Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 were formally made this week, with commencement set for 1 December 2025. No transitional provisions apply. From that date, every Victorian employer has explicit regulatory obligations to identify, assess, and control psychosocial hazards in the workplace.

This is the end of a multi-year development process. Victoria is the last Australian jurisdiction to introduce specific psychosocial hazard regulations, and the final form of these Regulations looks different from where the process started.

The development timeline

The Victorian Government first proposed amending its OHS Regulations to address psychological health in 2021. An exposure draft was released for public consultation in 2022, with submissions closing on 31 March 2022. The Government then took three years to consider stakeholder feedback before announcing in February 2025 that the Regulations would be finalised in October 2025 and commence on 1 December 2025.

The Regulations were informed by three significant reviews: the 2018 Review of the model WHS laws (the Boland Review), the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System, and the Productivity Commission's Inquiry into Mental Health. Each identified that more needed to be done to help duty holders meet their obligations with respect to psychological health.

What changed from the earlier drafts

The final Regulations differ from the 2022 exposure draft in two significant ways.

Mandatory prevention plans were dropped. The earlier draft required employers to prepare written prevention plans for five specific psychosocial hazards: bullying, sexual harassment, aggression or violence, exposure to traumatic content or events, and high job demands. The final Regulations do not include this requirement. WorkSafe Victoria has published a prevention plan template and encourages its use, but it is not mandatory.

Six-monthly reporting to WorkSafe was dropped. The earlier draft proposed that employers with 50 or more employees report de-identified psychosocial complaint data to WorkSafe every six months. This requirement does not appear in the final Regulations.

The removal of these two requirements simplifies compliance on paper, but raises the expectation that employers self-manage their documentation. Without mandatory reporting, the onus falls on organisations to maintain records that demonstrate systematic psychosocial risk management if a regulator, inspector, or coroner asks to see the evidence.

The core obligations

The Regulations require employers, so far as is reasonably practicable, to:

Identify psychosocial hazards that may arise in the working environment.

Eliminate or reduce the risks associated with those hazards. Where elimination is not reasonably practicable, the employer must reduce the risk by altering the management of work, systems of work, work design, or the workplace environment. Information, instruction, or training can only be used as the sole control measure if those higher-order alterations are not reasonably practicable, and training cannot be the predominant measure.

Consult with employees and health and safety representatives about psychosocial hazards and how they are managed.

Review control measures when specific triggers occur: before altering any process or system of work that may change the risks, when new information about a psychosocial hazard becomes available, when an employee or someone on their behalf reports a psychological injury or hazard, after a notifiable incident involving a psychosocial hazard, when controls are no longer adequate, or after receiving a request from a health and safety representative.

These obligations apply to employees, independent contractors, and labour-hire workers.

A Compliance Code also takes effect on 1 December 2025. An employer who complies with the Compliance Code is taken to have complied with the corresponding duties under the OHS Act and Regulations.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information on psychosocial compliance in Australian workplaces. It does not constitute legal advice. Organisations should consult qualified professionals for advice specific to their circumstances. Information cited is sourced from the Victorian Government, WorkSafe Victoria, and relevant legal analyses as of the date of publication.