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When an employee suffers a psychological injury arising from workplace bullying, the onus is on employers to look beyond interpersonal issues and take accountability for other risks present in the workplace, a regulator says.

WorkSafe Victoria's principal psychological health and safety specialist Amy Salmon says employers have an obligation to understand which hazards might be driving psychosocial injuries, and use this information to improve the whole workplace.

Using the metaphor of a "dirty pond", representing a toxic or difficult workplace that exposes workers to risks, the long-standing approach has been "to take the fish out of the environment and get them better", Salmon told the recent Australian and New Zealand Society of Occupational Medicine's Annual Scientific Meeting.

"We are putting them in a clean fishbowl, which is away from the workplace," she explains...