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Employers are now firmly on notice that when they're considering a major workplace change, they need to assess the risk of psychosocial hazards potentially arising from it, a lawyer says.

When a safety regulator halted an employer's proposed redundancies late last year, on the day the plan was announced, it was the first time a prohibition notice had been issued in this way, says King & Wood Mallesons' senior consultant Brett Feltham.

"Historically, prohibition notices have been issued for high-risk activities, where accidents occurred, and basically we've got to put tools down because there is a risk of that event reoccurring," he explains in a new HR Daily Premium webcast, HR hot spots 2026.

The major tip to take from this case, Feltham says, is that when going through a redundancy process, or any major change, employers need to be thinking about whether psychosocial hazards are arising, and what control measures they're putting in place...