8 Responding to reports, complaints, or incidents

Encouraging workers to raise concerns regarding psychosocial hazards, and in turn effectively responding to those concerns, can assist PCBUs to not only identify hazards, but also review whether control measures are working. To facilitate this, PCBUs can investigate reports, complaints or incidents involving psychosocial hazards to determine what happened, why, and what can be done to improve controls to eliminate or minimise recurrence. The formality and comprehensiveness of any investigation and response can be proportional to the level of risk, the seriousness of actual or potential harm, the number of workers affected, and the size of the business.

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The process for investigating or responding to reports, complaints or incidents involving psychosocial hazards should be proactive, fair, objective, conducted in a timely and impartial manner, applied consistently to all workers, and ensure procedural fairness for all parties involved. This is particularly important where there is an allegation about work-related bullying, work-related violence or aggression, or work-related sexual harassment.

Where a HSR has been advised of a complaint or incident involving a worker in their workgroup, they are entitled to investigate the complaint. This can include:

\- inspecting the workplace, or any part of the workplace, the worker works at any time after giving reasonable notice to the PCBU, or without notice if the incident or situation involves a serious risk to health and safety emanating from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard
\- accompanying an inspector during an inspection of the workplace or part of a workplace where the worker works
\- with the consent of a worker, or one or more workers, the HSR representing and being present at an interview between the worker(s) and an inspector or PCBU (or the PCBUs representative)
\- receiving information concerning the work health and safety of workers in the workgroup
\- wherever necessary, requesting the assistance of any person.

It will not always be appropriate to consult work groups or their representative HSR(s) if the initiating report or subsequent investigation includes sensitive and confidential information about other workers. In this case, it is still useful to provide HSRs with general information about the process and outcomes including:

\- how the psychosocial hazard will be managed
\- updates on the progress actions in response to the report, complaint or incident and likely timeframes, and
\- WHS actions and improvements which have or will be introduced in response to the issue (within the limits of confidentiality).

Principles that can be applied, so far as is reasonably practicable, when responding to complaints, incidents or reports involving psychosocial hazards are set out in the below table.

Principles	Response
Act promptly	Respond to reports, complaints, or incidents quickly, reasonably and within established timelines. Advise relevant parties how long it will likely take to respond. Keep them informed of progress to provide reassurance the report has not been forgotten or ignored.
Ensure immediate safety	Take steps to eliminate or minimise ongoing exposure to hazards and to provide immediate support so far as reasonably practicable.
Treat all matters seriously	Take reports, complaints and incidents seriously and assess them on their merits and facts.
Use a trauma-informed approach	The concept of a trauma-informed approach means that workplace systems recognise and acknowledge that workplace responses or investigations of reports about psychosocial hazards can escalate or de-escalate distress in those with a lived or living experience of trauma.In practical terms this means PCBUs who provide services to client groups who may foreseeably have a history of trauma can integrate knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures and practices, especially complaint handling procedures and practices. This can include principles of:• safety, both physical and emotional (e.g. is the environment and are the processes welcoming? do workplace processes consider the emotional safety and wellbeing of affected individuals? or is the environment/ process likely to distress someone with a lived or living experience of trauma?)• trust (e.g. are the processes sensitive to people’s needs, empowering to affected individuals, offering some flexibility and/or opportunity for choice where reasonably practicable? are workers supported to make informed choices, given timely information about the process/their rights?)• equity and respect (e.g. do the processes ensure interpersonal respect, acknowledge diversity in all its forms, are they inclusive?)• hope (e.g. do processes assume optimism and the possibility of recovery/resolution?).
Maintain confidentiality	Maintain the confidentiality of all parties involved or be very clear if there are any limits to confidentiality (e.g. if there are concerns about the safety of others). As a general rule, details of the matter should only be known by those directly concerned in the complaint or in resolving it and sensitive and personal information should be protected.
Be neutral	Impartiality towards everyone involved is critical. This includes the way people are treated throughout the process and ensuring all parties are able to provide their side of the story. The person responding to the report, complaint or incident should not have been directly involved with either party. Personal or professional bias is to be avoided. If this is not possible, consider engaging an external party to ensure impartiality.
Support all parties	Once a report or complaint has been made, or an incident has occurred, advise parties involved what support is available, for example employee assistance programs, and allow a support person to be present throughout the process including at interviews or meetings (e.g. an HSR, union representative or work colleague). Ensure adequate and fair support is available to all parties, including those who may be away from work during investigations or during disciplinary processes. This includes both the complainant and the person who the complaint has been made about. Support should also continue following completion of the incident investigation process.
Do not victimise	It is important to ensure anyone who reports a psychosocial hazard, or is a party to a report, complaint or incident is protected from victimisation.
Communicate process and outcomes	Inform all parties of the process, any rights and obligations that may apply, how long it is estimated to take and what they can expect will happen during and at the end of the process, including rights of appeal and review. Should the process be delayed for any reason, advise parties of the delay and when the process is expected to resume. Reasons for actions that have been taken or not taken should be explained to the parties wherever possible so that the processes and outcomes are transparent. Wherever possible, an educative approach should be used. Where persons are away from the workplace (e.g. they are unwell or have been stood down from their roles during investigation processes), ensure an appropriate mechanism for communication is still available
Keep records	Keeping a record of the following information will be useful:• the person who made the report• when the report was made• who the report was made to• the details of the issue reported• action taken to respond to the issue• any further action required – what, when and by whom.

8Responding to reports, complaints, or incidents

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8 Responding to reports, complaints, or incidents