The seventh psychosocial hazard that is listed in Safe Work Australia’s Model Code of Practice on Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work is “poor organisational justice”.

Why is poor organisational justice a psychosocial hazard?

This hazard involves a lack of procedural justice (fair processes to reach decisions), informational fairness (keeping people informed) and interpersonal fairness (treating people with dignity and respect). Some questions that you might ask to assess whether there are any psychosocial hazards related to poor organisational justice in your workplace include:

• Are there any failures to respect peoples’ privacy or to protect confidentiality of their personal information?
• Are there cases where a worker’s performance is openly discussed in front of other people?
• Are there any instances of people’s information being used for purposes other than that which the information was provided for?
• Are any policies unfair or biased or do they deny any workers their rights?
• Are policies applied inconsistently or in a biased way creating inequalities?
• Does the organisation fail to recognise and accommodate the reasonable needs of workers?
• Are there occurrences of actual or alleged cases of underperformance, misconduct and harmful behaviour that are not addressed appropriately or at all?
• Are there inequalities in the allocation of work or shifts or opportunities that are discriminatory or unfair?
• Are there different rules for different categories or groups of workers?
• Are there inadequacies in policies and procedures compromising the capacity to make fair decisions on employment matters?

This list is not exhaustive and while we have based these posts on the model code produced by Safe Work Australia, there can be differences in the specific details for each State or Territory. So you need to check that in the jurisdiction in which your workplace lies.

The third psychosocial hazard identified in Safe Work Australia’s Model Code for Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work is “poor support”.

Why is “poor support” a psychosocial hazard?

There are a range of ways in which people might be poorly supported – like how their supervisors or other workers interact with them or not having the availability or the quality of resources available to enable them to do their job and lots more.

Some questions that you might ask to assess whether there are any poor support related psychosocial hazards in your workplace include:

• Do people receive insufficient, unclear or contradictory information related to their work?
• Do people have all of  the things they need to do their job properly or on time and/or do they have to wait or compete for what they need ?
• Are tools and systems and other resources  poorly maintained or inadequate for the work that is supposed to be undertaken? 
• Are people given the instruction, training and time to develop skills that are necessary for the work they are to do? 
• Can workers access supervisors consistently to make decisions and provide them with the guidance that they need?
• Are there sufficient workers available to perform tasks safely?
• Is it difficult for workers to call out for help when they need it because they cannot leave their workstation, or because they are working on their own or remotely?
• is the workplace culture competitive and discouraging of people helping each other out?
• Is it hard to find somewhere psychologically safe to talk to someone because there are no private facilities or meeting rooms in the workplace? 
• Do people think that management doesn’t listen and doesn’t respond if anyone raises a concern?
• Do people not get good performance feedback as it is not constructive, or helpful or it is non-existent?

This list is not exhaustive and, while we have based these posts of the model code produced by Safe Work Australia, there can be differences in the specific details for each State or Territory. So you need to check that in the jurisdiction in which your workplace lies.