Raise a mentally healthy work concern

The business or organisation you work for is likely to have obligations under the law to look after your mental health at work. If they are not meeting these obligations, you can raise a concern with WorkSafe.

The page supporting mentally healthy work has information on WorkSafe’s expectations of businesses or organisations.

If you are currently in an emergency situation or are seriously concerned about your own or someone else’s immediate safety you should call 111.

If you need mental health and wellbeing support, you can speak with someone you trust, or you can call 1737 to speak to a trained professional about your mental health and wellbeing.

What you need to know before beginning this form

Do you have permission to raise this concern?

If you’re raising the concern on behalf of someone else, whether as a witness, colleague, employment advocate, friend or loved one it’s important you have the permission of the person involved to contact WorkSafe.

WorkSafe can only consider work-related mental health concerns if they were experienced by you or you have permission from the person who it is about.

Has the concern been raised with the business or organisation?

WorkSafe advises speaking with appropriate people within the business or organisation first. This can be a manager, but if this makes you feel unsafe, you can contact a Health and Safety Representative, union representative, staff working in Health and Safety or Human Resources.

Other organisations which might be able to help you are listed later on this page.

What this form will ask

In order to assess the concern you're raising, this form will ask for some information from you.

This includes your name and contact details, details about the incident/s, who was involved (both who caused the harm and who experienced it) and what has been done about it including who else has been told about it.

This form won’t require you to upload any supporting documents.

You should provide as much information as you can, including specific examples where you have them. The more information you provide, the more it will assist WorkSafe in reviewing the concern you are raising.

Information you provide about yourself will be kept as outlined in WorkSafe’s privacy statement and policy. You will also have the option on the form of requesting WorkSafe doesn’t share your name or identifying information with the business or organisation if we have to contact them.

What might happen after you raise a concern

Once a concern is raised it will be assessed by WorkSafe’s specialised health team to see what actions we may take. You can find out more about how your information will be kept in WorkSafe’s privacy statement and policy.

We might contact you to request more information.

We might also contact the business or organisation the concern is about.

When WorkSafe has decided what action we will take, we will contact you and let you know what we will do. There are a number of actions that might be taken including:

we determine there is an issue the business or organisation needs to address and works with them to take steps to prevent harm.
we suggest raising the concern with a different Government agency more appropriate to deal with it.
the business or organisation has taken steps to address the concern between when the concern is raised and WorkSafe’s assessment, and we have no action to take.

Is WorkSafe the best place to contact?

As New Zealand’s workplace health and safety regulator WorkSafe’s role is related to work-related mental health concerns. This means we can only look into concerns if there is a clear link between the concern and the workplace. We’re unlikely to intervene in one-off cases. However, we may consider intervening where a business has failed to manage significant work-related mental health risks.

Situations that might prompt us to consider intervening include:

multiple incidents arising at one business/organisation,
if a high level of harm resulted from the failure to manage risks, or
industry-wide or organisation-wide failings.

We’ll make intervention choices based on our strategic priorities and on whether we are the best placed agency to intervene. For more information see our policy when we intervene.

There are other organisations which may be able to help you with certain concerns:

Police

You should contact the Police without delay if the concern relates to violence, sexual assault, criminal harassment or similar matters. If you have already contacted the Police about a concern and they have confirmed it is not within their threshold to act upon, you can still raise your concern with WorkSafe.

Employment Relations Authority (ERA):

You can contact the ERA for employment relations issues.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE):

You can contact MBIE for employment-related matters. MBIE provides a free mediation service for help with employment relationship problems.

Human Rights Commission (HRC):

You can contact the HRC if your concern relates to human rights. The HRC can help you understand your rights, or you can make a complaint about discrimination, sexual harassment and other matters.

Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB):

You can contact CAB for free, confidential information and advice on most issues. CAB will be able to steer you toward the service which is most likely to be able to help you if you’re not sure who you should contact.

You could also contact a union, an employment advocate or a lawyer for help.

Raise a concern