Safety management system · public document
Document DR-WHS-POL-04 — identifying and controlling psychosocial hazards in training delivery, tours and workshops.
The current version of this document lives at diverseroutes.com.au — printed or downloaded copies are uncontrolled.
Psychosocial hazards — the aspects of work design, management and interaction that can cause psychological or physical harm — are managed under the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld) ss.55A–55D and the Queensland code of practice Managing the Risk of Psychosocial Hazards at Work. The duty applies to every PCBU regardless of size, and it covers not only our own personnel but the students and tour participants in our care. This policy identifies the psychosocial hazards actually present in Diverse Routes' work, maps the controls (many of which already exist elsewhere in this system), and sets how they are reviewed. Sexual and sex- or gender-based harassment has its own written plan, DR-WHS-PLN-01, as Queensland law requires.
Two things shape how this policy is written. First, the founding reason for this business: its director left a decade of unsustainable delivery hours in the training industry, so fatigue and job demands are treated here as the primary psychosocial risk, not a formality. Second, the sole-operator context (manual s.2): the person identifying these hazards is the person exposed to them, so controls are built into how the business is priced and scheduled rather than delegated to a procedure someone else follows.
The code of practice lists the common psychosocial hazards. Each is assessed below against our actual operations — contract training delivery on client sites, and (as they commence) 4WD tag-along tours, skills weekends and community workshops. Where a hazard is genuinely not present at current size, the table says so and names the growth trigger that would change the assessment.
| Hazard (code of practice) | Where it arises in our work | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| High job demands / fatigue | Long delivery days plus travel; reactive client bookings; cumulative load across a month | Primary risk. Controlled (see below) |
| Remote or isolated work | Solo delivery at remote sites; lead-vehicle role on tours far from support | Present — controlled via journey management and comms |
| Violence, aggression and conflict | Difficult or impaired learners; conflict within multi-day tour groups; roadside interactions | Present — controlled |
| Exposure to traumatic events or material | Rescue and emergency-response course content; attending real incidents on sites or tracks | Present — controlled |
| Harassment, incl. sexual and sex/gender-based | Training rooms; host workforces; camping-based tour groups | Present — managed under PLN-01 |
| Poor physical environment | Heat, noise and dust on industrial sites; weather exposure on tracks | Present — managed under host-site controls and SWMS |
| Low job control; poor support; low role clarity | Scope creep on engagements; unclear expectations from hosts | Low — engagement risk review (FRM-01) fixes scope before delivery |
| Bullying, intimidation and unreasonable demands from clients, host personnel or learners | Pressure to accept unsafe hours or scope; relationship leverage against declined bookings; intimidation by learners contesting assessment outcomes | Present and significant for a sole contractor — controlled (see below) |
| Allegations against our personnel (misconduct, harassment, unsafe practice, unfair assessment) | Sole trainer with no colleague present, holding assessment authority; tours with family groups | Present — prevention controls and a response protocol below |
| Internal bullying; poor organisational justice; inadequate reward; poor change management | Internal organisational hazards | Not applicable at current size (one worker). Growth trigger: reassessed before any worker or regular subcontractor is engaged. |
A sole trainer working without colleagues present, holding authority over assessment outcomes, and leading tours that include family groups, is exposed to allegations — honest, mistaken or otherwise — of misconduct, harassment, unsafe practice or unfair assessment. The consequences (psychological load, reputation, loss of engagements, legal cost) are managed in two parts.
Prevention — records and settings:
Response — the protocol if an allegation is made:
With one worker, consultation on psychosocial hazards is outward-facing (manual s.7): learners are invited to raise concerns at course start and in post-course feedback; clients are consulted at booking on cohort and site factors; tour participants are briefed and invited to raise issues at any point on a trip. Any person who is to facilitate under the Diverse Routes brand will be consulted on this policy before their first engagement, and the policy reviewed against their role. Growth trigger as per manual s.2.
Psychosocial incidents, near misses and concerns — including conflict, aggression, harassment and traumatic exposures — are recorded on the incident report form (DR-WHS-FRM-02) and managed through the incident process in manual s.13, with the same standard of investigation, corrective action and learning applied to psychological harm as to physical injury. Reports may be made to the Managing Director directly, or — where that is inappropriate — through the independent avenues listed in PLN-01.
This policy is reviewed at the annual self-audit (manual s.16), after any recorded psychosocial incident, and when activities change — in particular, before the first commercial tour departs and before any additional person facilitates under the brand. Psychosocial risks are carried in the standing risk register (DR-WHS-REG-02).
| Version | Date | Approved by | Amendments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 3 September 2026 | Straun Cameron, Managing Director | Initial issue |
