Qube Holdings (Australia), Psychosocial Hazard Risk Management for Port and Logistics Workers

Qube describes itself as Australia's largest provider of import and export logistics services. It has about 10,000 employees at more than 200 locations, and its operations include Qube Ports and Bulk (Qube, n.d.). Australian work health and safety laws now require employers to manage psychosocial risks in the same way as physical risks. Qube's Psychosocial Hazard Risk Management Standard and Plan sets out how it does this across all its Australian workplaces, covering workers, contractors and visitors (Qube, 2026).

Approach

Name the hazards. The Standard groups psychosocial hazards into four types (Qube, 2026):

• social factors, such as violence, bullying and harassment;
• organizational factors, such as high or low job demands, low job control, poor support and role clarity, and poor change management;
• workplace factors, such as remote or isolated work and a poor physical environment;
• traumatic events.

Use the same risk process as physical hazards. Qube applies a four-step process: identify, assess, control, and maintain and review. To find hazards, it uses feedback from work health and safety working groups, site inspections, leadership engagements, leave and turnover patterns, and injury and incident data (Qube, 2026).

Controls matched to each risk. Each hazard has a risk rating and listed controls (Qube, 2026):

• Job demands: rostering within legal maximum hours, workload and staffing checks, leave monitoring and a Fatigue Management Policy.
• Bullying: induction on acceptable behavior every two years and annual Respect@Work training.
• Remote or isolated work: a working alone procedure and an employee assistance program with a safety check-in feature.
• Traumatic events: trained emergency responders and trauma-informed training for selected managers and safety representatives.

Support for workers and families. All workers and their families have unlimited access to the employee assistance program. Divisions are asked to consider setting a minimum number of managers with mental health first aid certification (Qube, 2026).

Consult and give workers several ways to speak up. Psychosocial risk is a standing item for the executive committee, the employee relations committee and site health and safety committees. It is also raised through toolbox talks and pre-start meetings. Workers can report hazards to their manager or the People and Culture team, or through incident and complaint forms, the Qube+ employee app or the whistleblower hotline (Qube, 2026).

Results

The Standard sets clear roles for executives, managers and all workers, and commits to an initial review every year (Qube, 2026). Qube checks whether controls are working by reviewing hazard reports and incident trends. Published outcome data, such as changes in psychosocial injury claims, was not found in the sources reviewed