TUFFA urges employers to tackle psychosocial safety

TUFFA has called for psychosocial health to be treated as a core workplace safety issue in Australia, pointing to suicide data in construction and workplace programs designed to strengthen social connection.

Its comments focus on male-dominated sectors such as construction, mining, manufacturing and other industrial workplaces, where psychosocial hazards can include long hours, job insecurity, bullying, poor workplace relationships and isolated work.

Research cited by TUFFA found that male construction workers recorded a suicide rate of 26.6 deaths per 100,000 between 2001 and 2019, compared with 13.2 per 100,000 for men in other occupations.

Claire Standing, Marketing Manager at TUFFA, said the figures showed employers should treat psychosocial risks the same way as other workplace hazards.

"The type of issues that are perhaps unique to this industry include long working hours, job insecurity, low job control, workplace injuries, bullying, poor workplace relationships and a culture that can discourage men from asking for help," Standing said.

She said the discussion should move beyond personal resilience and individual wellbeing to workplace factors that employers can identify and manage.

Standing also pointed to a wider set of hazards now recognised in workplace health and safety discussions, including high job demands, poor support, remote or isolated work, long hours, bullying, harassment, violence, conflict and poor workplace relationships.

"We are attending a WHS conference in October, and one of the messages they are focusing on is that psychosocial hazards are not simply issues of individual resilience, they are workplace health and safety risks that employers are expected to identify and manage," she said.

Workplace connection

TUFFA recently distributed 1,100 limited-edition R U OK? Day safety tags to workplaces across Australia. The tags were intended to prompt workers to check in with colleagues and start conversations about mental health.

Standing said the response from employers showed a willingness to use existing workplace safety routines to carry mental health messages.

"We were encouraged by employers' enthusiasm for this initiative. A couple of our clients, large organisations in the industrial, mining, construction and manufacturing sectors who had placed orders for safety tags, were so pleased with the complementary R U OK? Day tags that they requested more," she said.

TUFFA linked the initiative to research on social connection among younger workers who have completed trade apprenticeships. It cited findings from Apprenticeships Are Us Ltd showing that 80.9% of respondents said they felt lonely rarely or never in the previous four weeks.

The same research found that most respondents had someone outside their home they could confide in, and those with a confidant reported lower average loneliness scores. The report was based on 360 respondents and recorded average work satisfaction of 7.81 out of 11 and average life satisfaction of 7.72, while more than three-quarters reported a wellbeing score of seven or higher.

TUFFA said those findings suggest workplaces can help build support networks, especially in sectors where employees may spend long periods on site, in workshops, in warehouses or in remote operations.

Employer role

TUFFA also referred to research into the MATES in Construction program, which identified workplaces as important settings for mental health and suicide prevention because they provide access to male-dominated groups that can otherwise be hard to reach.

That emphasis places greater responsibility on employers to consider psychosocial risks as part of mainstream safety management rather than as a separate human resources or wellbeing issue.

Standing said workplaces can play a direct role in creating the conditions for support, openness and intervention when problems emerge.

"New research by national apprenticeship provider Apprenticeships Are Us Ltd (ARU) has found unexpectedly strong levels of social connectedness among young Aussies who have completed a trade apprenticeship, with 80.9% reporting they felt lonely rarely or never in the previous four weeks," she said.

"The majority of respondents felt they had someone outside their home they could confide in, with those who had access to a confidant reporting lower average loneliness scores," she said.

For employers, the issue is whether psychological risk is assessed with the same seriousness as physical hazards on worksites and in industrial facilities. In sectors where safety systems are already embedded in daily work, TUFFA argues that psychosocial health should sit within that same framework.

"Psychosocial safety is about creating a workplace where people genuinely look out for one another. Employers have an important role to play in building a culture where workers feel connected, supported and comfortable speaking up when something isn't right," Standing said.