Psychosocial Hazards in NSW: Codes Are Now Binding and Inspectors Are Checking

In June we wrote about the change to NSW codes of practice coming on 1 July 2026. Four months on, the change is in force and the regulator is acting on it, with psychosocial hazards at the top of the list.

If your business operates in NSW, here is where things stand and what SafeWork NSW inspectors are likely to ask you for.

What has changed

Codes of practice now carry legal weight. Since 1 July 2026, section 26A of the NSW Work Health and Safety Act 2011 requires a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) to comply with an approved code of practice, or to manage the hazard in another way that gives an equivalent or higher standard of health and safety. An inspector can issue an improvement notice for a breach of section 26A where you cannot show that your alternative is at least as good as the code.

For psychosocial hazards, that means the Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work is now the benchmark your approach will be measured against.

The regulator has more people on it. The NSW Government's $127.7 million investment in SafeWork NSW includes 20 additional specialist psychosocial inspectors.

There is a new place for workers and employers to go. On 22 September 2026 the NSW Government launched the Psychosocial Advisory Service, developed with the Black Dog Institute. Workers and employers can speak with trained advisors about bullying, harassment and work-related stress by calling 13 10 50, and serious matters can be escalated to inspectors.

Inspectors are already out. SafeWork NSW reports that a recent compliance operation visited more than 200 workplaces and issued more than 80 improvement notices relating to psychosocial hazards and risk management, and a further six-week operation began around World Mental Health Day in October 2026.

More is coming. The Work Health and Safety Amendment (Digital Work Systems) Act 2026 extends WHS duties to risks created by digital work systems, such as software that allocates, schedules or monitors work. Most of it commences once SafeWork NSW publishes its guidelines, which are still being developed, so this is one to watch rather than act on today.

What an inspector is likely to look for

An inspector will want to see that you manage psychosocial hazards the way the code describes: as a risk created by how the work is designed, organised and managed, controlled like any other risk. In practice that means evidence that you have:

1. Identified the hazards in your own work, not a generic list. Job demands, low job control, poor support, unclear roles, poorly managed change, traumatic events, remote or isolated work, violence and aggression, bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment.
2. Consulted your workers and Health and Safety Representatives while doing it, and acted on what they told you.
3. Assessed the risk for the roles and tasks most exposed, considering how often, how long and how severe the exposure is, and how the hazards combine.
4. Chosen controls that change the work, working down the hierarchy of control: designing out the hazard first, before relying on training, policies and individual coping.
5. Checked that the controls are in place and working, and reviewed them when something changes or goes wrong.
6. Kept records that show all of the above.

The gap we see most often

Most organisations we work with have done something about psychosocial risk. The trouble is what that something usually is: a wellbeing program, an employee assistance program, a mental health awareness session, resilience training, a policy on the intranet.

Those things support people, and they are worth having. But on their own they do not control the risk, because they do not change the work that is causing the harm. If a team is exposed to unrealistic workloads, the control is a change to the workload, the staffing or the deadline, not a webinar on stress management. A control must change the risk, and someone must be able to check it.

When an inspector asks how you have controlled the risk of high job demands in your customer service team, "we offer EAP" is not an answer. "We set a maximum call queue, added a second person at peak times, and the team leader checks the queue data weekly" is.

What to do now

• Read the code against what you actually do. Where you do something different, write down why your approach gives an equivalent or higher standard.
• Do a psychosocial risk assessment for your highest-risk roles, with the people in them, if you have not already.
• Put your controls in a register with an owner for each one and a way of checking it is working.
• Train your supervisors and managers. They make the day-to-day decisions about workload, rosters, conflict and change that create or control these hazards.
• Make reporting easy and safe, and make sure reports are acted on and closed out.
• Tell your workers about the Psychosocial Advisory Service alongside your own internal reporting options.
• Watch for the digital work systems guidelines if you use software to allocate, schedule or monitor work.

How we can help

Our ready-to-deliver psychosocial risk training packages give every level of your business the same method, from workers to the board, with an Implementation Toolkit of editable risk registers, assessments and review tools:

• Psychosocial risk training packages
• Toolbox talks on Workplace Bullying and Harassment, Sexual Harassment and Workplace Violence and Aggression

We also run psychosocial risk training in person and in-house, and can review your psychosocial risk assessment and controls against the code. See psychosocial hazards or contact us.

This article is general information about NSW work health and safety law as at October 2026. It is not legal advice. Check SafeWork NSW's current guidance for your circumstances.