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New legislation that aims to provide protection from "modern workplace pressures" is being criticised for ignoring the root cause of issues and undermining national approaches to work health and safety.

NSW's Legislative Council last night passed the Work Health and Safety Amendment (Digital Work Systems) Bill, a week after the Legislative Assembly voted in its favour.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Safety, the new law is "fundamentally flawed", inconsistent with the intent of national WHS laws, and undermines the principles of good work design, which is the process of organising tasks to eliminate or minimise risks at their source.

It introduces a 'Digital Work System Duty', requiring businesses to ensure that their systems (including algorithms, AI, automation and online work platforms) don't jeopardise worker safety, and in doing so it ignores the root cause of poor work design, says AIHS chair Celia Antonovsky...