If this question gets you looking a little 😬 , 🥴 or 🫣 , it might be time to share your experience so you can be part of making workplaces healthier and safer!
Work Shouldn’t Hurt is a survey on workers’ experiences with health and safety – and we want to hear from you.
An opportunity to speak up
There have been four waves of Work Shouldn’t Hurt, with the first survey being conducted in 2021, followed by 2022, 2023 and 2025.
Now run every two years, the surveys are an opportunity for thousands of workers to speak openly about their health and safety experiences and concerns at work. All responses are strictly confidential.
The long-term aim of the surveys is to identify any shifts or stagnations in health and safety issues, so union members can bring to light what workers need in order to build healthier and safer workplaces.
The responses frame conversations with employers and governments and contribute to developing campaigns to drive positive change.
Previous results reveal sobering realities
2021
One in five workers reported experiencing some form of gendered violence or harassment at work, and only 31% of workers who took some form of action after an incident felt satisfied with their employer’s response. Three out of 10 workers took no action, citing fear of a backlash or lack of faith in the process.
Since then, union members have won new laws that mean sexual harassment is now prohibited and employers have a positive duty to take reasonable and proportionate steps to eliminate sexual harassment from their workplaces.
2022
More than a third of workers in insecure jobs reported having gone to work while suffering from a work-related injury or illness. Around 40% said it was simply too difficult to arrange a cover or to catch up on work later.
This was just a symptom of a larger problem: understaffing, with 46% saying that they couldn’t do their work safely due to insufficient staffing levels. In frontline industries – such as health, education, and retail – more than 30% said their employer did not prioritise worker safety above production, output or service.
2023
Nearly 7 in 10 workers in insecure work reported that they did not take time off because they could not afford to. At the time of the survey, there were over half a million casual workers in Australia who preferred to have a permanent job, but less than 5% of those could secure one.
Since then, union members won new laws that introduced a commonsense definition of casual employment and a fairer pathway for long-term casual workers to convert to permanent work!
More workers in permanent jobs mean fewer workers having to make the impossible decisions between showing up sick or missing out on a day’s pay.
2025
Encouragingly, there was an increase in those who reported that there was as much importance placed (by employers) on mental health hazards as physical (and that health and safety is placed ahead of service, production and output), and a decrease in those who reported that not having access to leave is a barrier to taking time off work following a mental health injury.
But mental health injuries (including those cause by a spike in violence and aggression in the workplace and discrimination) continue to dominate – being reported nearly twice as often as physical injuries, and more than two-thirds of those workers affected needing time off work to recover.
Health & Safety Reps are key
While concerning conclusions were clear from all surveys, they also consistently show that the presence of Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) in workplaces have a positive influence on health and safety.
HSRs are elected or chosen by workers and have the right to be trained by their union every year. They have powers to inspect records and investigate incidents and employers are legally required to consult them and workers about all matters relating to health and safety, including any changes to the way that work is conducted.
Be part of the change in 2027
No matter if you’re a first-time participant or you’ve taken part before, don’t miss your chance to have your say. The next survey will open next year.
This article was first published in 2025, and updated in 2026.
