Parliament House ‘making progress’ on workplace issues
SafeWork SA says it is “satisfied” with Parliament House’s response to a compliance audit that found numerous issues – including a lack of policies to deal with drugs and alcohol – within the North Terrace workplace.
The workplace regulator revealed in September it had issued six improvement notices to Parliament House on a range of workplace issues identified by two inspectors in an August audit.
The audit found Parliament House lacked policies and procedures to manage “the hazards associated with alcohol and/or drugs in the workplace”.
It also found Parliament House had “[failed] to demonstrate that an adequate hazard identification and risk assessment targeting all psychosocial hazards had been undertaken in the workplace”.
SafeWork defines psychosocial hazards as when the design or management of a job increases the risk of work-related stress, such as when the demands of a role exceed a worker’s ability or resources to cope.
Parliament House was due to respond to five of the six improvement notices around this week, although it was given until the first half of 2025 to address the psychosocial hazards issue.
House of Assembly clerk Rick Crump, who has responsibility for Parliament House’s administration, said Parliament House has now complied with three of the six improvement notices “in full”.
He also said SafeWork has granted an extension until January 31 to implement the alcohol and drug policy.
“The notice relating to an approved system of work for managing the hazards associated with alcohol and/or drugs in the workplace has been extended until 31 January 2025 to allow for further consultation and implementation of the draft policy,” Crump said in a statement.
“The Parliament of South Australia is making progress to achieve compliance for the outstanding notices, in consultation with SafeWork SA.”
Workers in leadership roles are now provided “adequate information and training about their duties and responsibilities under work health and safety legislation”, Crump said, noting this was one of the improvement notices issued by SafeWork.
Everyone who enters the Parliament House workplace for “work-related” duties is now provided information, instruction and training on work health and safety systems, he added.
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A SafeWork spokesperson confirmed Parliament House’s compliance with the workplace leadership training notice as well as the extension to the drug and alcohol policy notice.
“SafeWork SA is satisfied with the level of progress made towards compliance,” a spokesperson said.
SafeWork’s compliance audit was a recommendation of the Equal Opportunity Commissioner’s February 2021 review into harassment in the parliamentary workplace.
The damning report found that, of those who participated in the review, more than 27 per cent of South Australian MPs or their staffers, the majority of whom were women, had experienced sexual harassment at least once at work.
