Managing Mental Health at Work – Your Legal Responsibilities

PERTH, Australia - March 23, 2017 - PRLog -- The majority of employees with mental health problems, successfully manage their illness without it impacting on their work and it is important to remember that people affected by mental illness have the same rights and responsibilities, as other employees.

A stressful work environment or a workplace incident, can however cause considerable anxiety and aggravate or contribute to the manifestation of mental illness.  Employers and managers are obliged to take appropriate steps to eliminate and minimise health and safety risks in the workplace. In terms of mental illness, as an employer or manager you are compelled to:

·         identify workplace practices, actions or incidents which may cause or contribute to the mental illness

·         take actions to eliminate or minimise these risks.

You are obliged to eliminate, isolate or lessen health and safety risks, while taking care to ensure the privacy of employees is upheld.  Under the Fair Work Act 2009, it is essential to ensure that unfavourable action is not taken against a worker because of their mental illness. An adverse action can include dismissal, injuring the employee, altering the position of the employee to the employees' disadvantage, refusing to employ a prospective employee or discriminating against an employee with mental illness.

While employers have several legal obligations, they do have the right to ask certain questions about an employee or potential employee's mental health status, if obtaining more information about a condition is legitimate, necessary and desirable.

In turn, all employees (including those with mental illness) are legally obliged to:

·         take reasonable care for their own health and safety

·         take reasonable care that their acts and omissions do not adversely affect the health or safety of others

·         cooperate with any reasonable instructions to ensure workplace health and safety.

In consultation with experts and clients, myosh have developed the Wellbeing platform to Manage Workplace Mental Health.

Our cloud based solution provides managers and employees with resources and strategies to:

·       Reduce Risk

·       Improve Productivity

·       Promote a positive working environment

·       Raise awareness and reduce stigma

Join a webinar to learn more about Mental Health Management at Work and the Wellbeing Platform.  Read the full article here : http://myosh.com/wellbeing/