Parliament House audit flags drug, alcohol and ‘pyschosocial’ concerns
EXCLUSIVE | SafeWork SA has given Parliament House three months to fix issues including “managing the hazards associated with alcohol and/or drugs in the workplace”, with its audit also raising concerns about “psychosocial hazards”.
The workplace safety regulator in August completed a compliance audit of Parliament House focusing on psychological hazards including sexual and discriminatory harassment in the parliamentary workplace.
The audit, conducted by two SafeWork inspectors, was a recommendation of the Equal Opportunity Commissioner’s February 2021 review into harassment in the parliamentary workplace.
The damning report found that more than 27 per cent of South Australian MPs or their staffers, the majority of whom were women, who participated in the review had experienced sexual harassment at least once at work.
One of the report’s 16 recommendations was that both houses of parliament support a compliance audit by SafeWork SA across the parliamentary workplace “to be conducted within two years of the date of this report”.
Three years and six months later, SafeWork SA today released the findings of its compliance audit.
The regulator said it has issued six improvement notices to Parliament House relating to a range of workplace issues.
This includes “the absence of an approved system of work” – i.e. policies and procedures – for “managing the hazards associated with alcohol and/or drugs in the workplace”.
Another improvement notice related to Parliament House “failing to demonstrate that an adequate hazard identification and risk assessment targeting all psychosocial hazards had been undertaken at the workplace”.
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SafeWork SA defines psychosocial hazards as when the design or management of a job increases the risk of a work-related stress, such as when the demands of a role exceeds a worker’s ability or resources to cope.
The regulator also said Parliament House has been “failing to demonstrate the provision of a system of work for managing and resolving grievances or complaints associated with third parties who enter the workplace to undertake work related duties”.
It also raised concerns that workers in leadership roles had not been “provided with adequate information and training about their duties and responsibilities under work health and safety legislation”.
A full list of the improvement notices can be found at the end of this article.
“Work can continue while the improvement notice is being actioned,” Safework SA said of its Parliament House audit.
“However, the notice will require the issue to be fixed within a specified time.”
Parliament House will need to address all improvement notices, excluding the one related to psychosocial hazards, within 10 to 12 weeks, while the psychosocial hazards recommendation will need to be actioned by the first half of 2025.
InDaily contacted the House of Assembly clerk’s office for comment. The clerks of the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council are responsible for the administration of parliament, along with the Joint Services Division.
Special Minister of State Dan Cregan said the state government took the issue “extremely seriously”.
“In December 2023, with the support of the Government, the presiding officers directed parliamentary officers to implement all outstanding recommendations of the Equal Opportunity Commissioner without delay,” Cregan said in a statement.
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“The Government takes these matters extremely seriously and has introduced legislation to appoint an executive officer to parliament to bolster executive resources available to the clerks.”
In December 2023, Equal Opportunity Commissioner Erma Ranieri said there had been “progress” in implementing the recommendations of the 2021 review into harassment in the parliamentary workplace.
Among the recommendations that have been carried out from the 2021 report is the creation of a People and Culture Unit at Parliament House to tackle workplace harassment.
SafeWork SA said its inspectors identified the new HR unit as a positive feature.
“Parliament House is by its nature complex in terms of employment arrangements and includes three entities: the Joint Services Division, House of Assembly and Legislative Council,” the regulator said.
“Inspectors noted the People & Culture Section at Parliament House has made progress to ensure that the newly established WHS and psychosocial safety related safe systems of work are applicable to all three entities, which has been agreed upon by the Clerk of both Houses and the Chief Officers of the Joint Parliamentary Division.”
Asked by InDaily why the compliance audit did not take place within the two year timeframe recommended by the Equal Opportunity Commissioner, SafeWork SA said there were changes to workplace health and safety regulations that came into effect in December 2023.
“The new regulations provide a work health and safety framework to better deal with risks of psychological harm,” a spokesperson said.
“Together with the Model Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work, the new regulations provide practical guidance on how to manage risks to psychological health, developed in consultation with workers and businesses.
“It would have been premature for SafeWork SA to complete a thorough compliance audit until these strategies, policies, procedures and training programs were in place to reflect the new regulations.”
The six issues identified by SafeWork SA in its improvement notices to Parliament House:
1: Failing to demonstrate that an adequate hazard identification and risk assessment targeting all psychosocial hazards had been undertaken at the workplace.
2: Failing to demonstrate the provision of a system of work for managing and resolving grievances or complaints associated with third parties who enter the workplace to undertake work related duties.
3: The absence of an approved system of work for managing the hazards associated with alcohol and/or drugs in the workplace.
4: Failing to demonstrate that workers who undertake or act in leadership roles had been provided with adequate information and training about their duties and responsibilities under work health and safety legislation.
5: Failing to provide duty holders with information, instruction and training specifically relating to the duties prescribed by the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA), Section 27 Duty of Officers.
6: Failing to demonstrate that all persons who enter the workplace to undertake work related duties are provided with adequate information, instruction and training in the work health and safety systems implemented to manage risks to physical and psychological health and safety.
