This page is an educational summary for professionals working with AI. It is not the law and not legal advice. Always work from the current authoritative text linked below.
What do WHS regulations 55A to 55D do?
They are the psychosocial provisions in Part 3.2 Division 11. Regulation 55A defines a psychosocial hazard as one arising from, or relating to, the design or management of work, a work environment, plant at a workplace, or workplace interactions or behaviours, which may cause psychological harm. Regulation 55B defines psychosocial risk; 55C imposes the management duty; 55D governs control measures. Read the current compilation on the Federal Register of Legislation.
Who does it bind?
Every person conducting a business or undertaking under the Commonwealth Regulations, which apply in the Comcare jurisdiction. The provisions mirror the model WHS laws as adopted in most jurisdictions, Victoria excepted; the verified text here is the Commonwealth version.
What do practitioners get wrong?
Conflating 55C and 55D. Regulation 55C does two things only: it requires the PCBU to manage psychosocial risks in accordance with Part 3.1 and to implement the control measures required by regulation 55D. The list of matters, from exposure duration and job demands to workplace interactions, lives in subregulation 55D(2) alone. A second error is dropping "plant at a workplace" from the 55A definition.
Where does AI use touch it?
AI can create the psychosocial hazards these regulations target, through job demands, pacing and reduced control. See AI-assisted psychosocial risk assessment and the AI pace work intensification five-signal test.
Bottom line
Regulations 55A to 55D put psychological harm on the same regulatory footing as physical harm: defined hazards, a clear duty in 55C, and the control-measure matters in 55D(2).
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