A response is needed to the numerous issues spurred by the expansion of the gig economy, where flexible patterns of employment prevail in contrast to permanent jobs. In this context of the exponential growth of the digital economy and underlying business models the largest nationwide...

This is the report of a day-long roundtable exploring better ways of preventing the debilitating mental consequences of traumatic stress and improving mental health outcomes for front-line first responder personnel.

Transport workers are up to five times more likely to be injured at work than any other Australian worker, according to this research. Train drivers, in particular, are thirty times more likely to develop a mental health condition than any other worker.

Like police, emergency services and youth justice, child protection is ‘frontline’ work that is highly complex and requires specialist skills—and frontline workers are considered to be at particular risk of developing mental health issues. This audit examines whether Victoria’s CPPs maintain good mental health and...

Not enough is being done to help stressed and overworked school principals cope with the ever-increasing demands of the job. This report reveals little is being done by private school employers, Catholic Education Offices or State and Territory governments to ease the burden school principals...

The aim of this research project was to gain evidence about the mental health and well-being of personnel working in the Victorian horse racing industry. These include occupational groups of horse trainers, jockeys, horse owners, stable supervisors, stable hands and others.

Raising awareness about the risk of suicide among construction workers and encouraging them to talk to each other about mental health is having a positive impact, according to new UniSA research.

Armed robbery exposes workers to serious harm in an environment where day-to-day safety is not normally a concern, and can have a wide range of negative consequences for employees. Victims may find it difficult to return to or cope at work. This research examined a...

The survey has run nationally every year since 2011 in response to growing concern about principals’ occupational health, safety and wellbeing. Since the project began, approximately 50% of Australia’s 10,000 principals have taken part. Many have completed multiple surveys. The aim of this research project...

This paper considers the likely utilisation of paid family and domestic violence leave provisions if they are extended (as has been proposed) to apply to all paid employees in Australia. The paper reviews the actual experience of several Australian employers which have already implemented paid...

This report, authored by Dr Peter Cotton, found that the issues uncovered in the review of firefighters in the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) are not dissimilar from the findings of other inquiries into emergency service organisations like the police or the ambulance service. The Executive...

Employers, building owners, designers, developers, and investors throughout the world are learning, in response to an increasing body of evidence, that office design affects the health and wellbeing of occupants in many ways and so it is a smart business move to create green buildings...

Social procurement – using business and government purchasing power to create social value – has tremendous potential for social impact. Procuring goods or services from social enterprises committed to employing and supporting marginalised groups, can create almost immediate change. However, social procurement is only an...

Bullying was measured using both a widely accepted international definition and the Australian definition used by Safe Work Australia. The prevalence rates using the international and the Australian definitions were similar: 9.7 per cent and 9.4 per cent of Australian workers respectively reported they had...

Previous research has indicated that addressing psychosocial hazards by improving Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) and also improving three psychological health outcomes: depression, psychological distress, and engagement may be effective in reducing sickness absence and presenteeism. Addressing psychosocial hazards that contribute to human capital costs is...

Australia has, at various times, been viewed as a “workers’ paradise” and the land of the long-weekend, a place where workers enjoy high wages and people live an easygoing or laid back lifestyle. But the social advances that underpin these stereotypes were the result of...

This report was conducted by Entertainment Assist in partnership with Victoria University. The research project was an innovative and extensive in-depth investigation into the wellbeing of those Australians who work, create and perform in the entertainment industry.

Workers compensation has a fraught history in most jurisdictions and Victoria is no exception. It is socially responsible to provide for a universal system of insurance covering work related injury to recognise the value of workers and the risks of work, and economically responsible both...

Despite some success in recruiting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the Australian Public Service (APS), the long-term trend is one of declining representation. A fundamental issue is that rates of separation among Indigenous public servants remain consistently greater than those of their non-Indigenous...

The Victoria Police Mental Health Review is an independent review into the mental health and wellbeing of Victoria Police employees.