Mental health at work for employers
An Easy Read guide about how you can make your workplace safe and healthy for everyone.
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In this guide, we talk about how you can support your mental health at work.
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Your mental health is about how you:
- think and feel about yourself
- deal with things in your life
- manage your feelings.
Why it’s important to support mental health at work
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A workplace that supports mental health is good for everyone.
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A workplace is any place you might work, such as:
- an office
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- a factory
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- a shop
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a service.
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Everyone has the right to a safe and healthy workplace.
Rights are rules about how people must treat you:
- fairly
- equally.
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Everyone has a role to make sure their workplace supports mental health.
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This includes:
- workers
- employers.
An employer is a person who hires other people to work for them.
What employers need to do
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Employers need to make sure the workplace is safe and healthy for workers.
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This means employers need to check the workplace to find out what could affect a worker’s mental health.
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It also means that employers need to fix any problems they find.
Learn more about how to find these problems and how to manage them on the WorkSafe NSW website.
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Employers need to protect workers from discrimination in the workplace.
This includes discrimination because of someone’s mental health.
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Employers cannot tell anyone else about a worker’s mental health unless they say it’s okay.
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Employers need to look at reasonable adjustments for workers who need support to keep working.
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Employers need to have a plan that supports people to come back to work after they have experienced mental illness.
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Find out more about return to work programs on the SafeWork NSW website.
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Employers need to keep a record of all the injuries that happen in the workplace.
This includes an injury that affected someone’s mental health.
Your rights as an employer
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Employers have the right to ask workers about their mental health if:
- it is affecting their work
- they have asked for reasonable adjustments.
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Employers have the right not to make changes in the workplace if they are not reasonable.
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For example, if the changes:
- cost a lot of money
- stop other people from doing their job.
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Employers have the right not to make changes in the workplace if they will stop a worker from doing their job.
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Employers must clearly explain to workers why they cannot make these changes to the workplace.