Don’t suffer in silence: Combatting workload psychosocial hazards
In Tasmanian schools, there has been a significant increase in the number of sub-branches seeking support with workload and other psychosocial hazards.
For every member who reaches out about these issues, there are likely to be many more who do not. Psychosocial hazards can be difficult to raise because of the sensitivity surrounding mental health and concerns about speaking up.
Too many educators are also still stoic to a fault, ‘soldiering on’ to their own detriment. This does not come without consequences. Work-related stress and psychosocial hazards can take a significant toll on workers and, when risks are not identified and addressed, can contribute to psychological injury and time away from work. This ultimately affects students and school communities as well as individual workers.
The hazards members are reporting
The issues being raised include:
unreasonable deadlines and time pressure
increased and excessive workloads
lack of support
lack of role clarity, creating confusion about who is responsible for what
double handling of tasks
feeling isolated and as though you are ‘the only one struggling’
moral distress or injury arising when workers are encouraged to put the needs of students ahead of their own health and safety
lack of consultation about changes that affect work
poor consideration of work health and safety risks.
Psychosocial hazards arise from the way work is designed, organised and managed, and employers have duties to identify and manage those risks.
If any of these issues are affecting you or your colleagues, don’t suffer in silence. The IEU can work with you and your colleagues to identify the hazards, raise them with your employer and seek appropriate action.
What can you do?
Speak to your IEU Rep.
Request a sub-branch meeting or seek information from colleagues about whether they are experiencing similar hazards.
As a sub-branch, contact your IEU Organiser for tailored advice and support.
Elect a Health and Safety Representative (HSR) where appropriate and make use of your HSR’s role in workplace health and safety.
Inform your employer about the hazards and the risks they are creating.
Record the hazards
It is also important to use Work Health and Safety Incident Reports and other available workplace reporting mechanisms to formally record workload and psychosocial hazards.
Recording what is happening provides evidence that the employer has been made aware of the hazard. It can also help identify patterns across a workplace, particularly when multiple workers are experiencing the same problem. This information can assist the employer to identify risks, consult with workers and implement measures to eliminate or minimise those risks.
Where appropriate, workers should also record near misses and situations where workload, time pressure or other psychosocial hazards could reasonably have resulted in injury. These records can be important in demonstrating that a risk exists even where an injury has not yet occurred.
When making a report, be clear and specific. Use language that identifies the work-related hazard rather than simply describing how you feel. For example:
‘High workloads’
‘Time pressure – unreasonable deadlines’
‘Lack of consultation about changes impacting work’
‘Poor consideration of work health and safety risks’
‘Lack of role clarity’
‘Insufficient resources/support to complete required work within available hours’.
Keep copies of reports where possible and keep your Organiser informed, particularly where hazards are ongoing or repeated.
Consultation matters
Employees can also request a staff survey to identify psychosocial hazards across the workplace. If a survey is undertaken, questions should be specific enough to allow staff to identify the actual problems they are experiencing. The IEU can offer expert assistance with this process.
Importantly, the consultation itself should not become another workload burden! Staff need protected time to participate in surveys, meetings and other consultation processes.
What if nothing happens?
Keep your Union Organiser informed.
Under health and safety legislation, employers have a primary duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that workers and other people are not exposed to risks to their health and safety arising from the work. This includes identifying and managing psychosocial risks. The duty is not simply to respond after someone becomes injured; employers are expected to take steps to identify and manage risks before harm occurs.
Where workload and work design are creating psychosocial risks, the answer cannot simply be to tell individual workers to cope better, work faster or put in more hours. The work itself must be examined.
The law is on your side. When work is creating a health and safety risk, workers have the right to raise that risk and seek action.
Stay united with your sub-branch. You may experience the hazards in different ways, but you are probably dealing with the same underlying workplace problem. Your colleagues are your greatest asset.
A unionised and organised workforce is better placed to identify hazards, demand consultation and insist that workplace health and safety is taken seriously.
