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Following the passage of the Digital Work Systems Bill in the NSW Parliament last week, workplace lawyers break down what HR needs to keep an eye out for.
First introduced by the NSW government on 19 November 2025, the newly passed Work Health and Safety Amendment (Digital Work Systems) Bill 2025, which passed the NSW Parliament last week (12 February), makes employers responsible for protecting the health and safety of workers from the potential impacts of digital work systems in the workplace.
The bill characterises a digital work system as an algorithm, artificial intelligence, automation or online platform.
This includes ensuring that the systems do not create excessive or unreasonable workloads, tracking, monitoring, or surveillance on workers, or introduce unlawful or discriminatory practices in decision making.
The NSW Minister for Industrial Relations, Sophie Cotsis, said the bill aims to ensure that "workers are protected in the digital age" and "every worker gets home safe at the end of the day".
Swaab partner Michael Byrnes (pictured, left) told HR Leader that this bill is "one of the most contentious amendments to WHS legislation for some time".
Byrnes also recognised that some may be concerned about the "associated entry rights, particularly as might be exercised by unions, [which] may lead to unwarranted and damaging incursions into the IT systems of employers".
Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black said: "This bill should have never passed; however, I'm thankful for these hard-fought guardrails that will mean businesses have at least some opportunities to prepare for intrusive union access to their digital documents."
Australian Institute of Health and Safety chairperson Celia Antonovsky said: "What the bill fails to do is recognise risks such as fatigue and psychological injury remain constant whether a task is assigned by a human or machine."
Byrnes said: "Employers should also keep an eye out for the release of the SafeWork guidelines on what constitutes 'reasonable assistance', and then prepare a detailed procedure, informed by and conforming to those guidelines, that balances compliance with obligations with the integrity and confidentiality of the digital work systems that might be inspected and accessed."
Dentons employment and safety associate Anna Sutton-Kunc (pictured, right) told HR Leader that workplaces must keep tabs on their use of digital work systems, especially when distributing work, evaluating performance, and in recruitment and promotion, ensuring that there is a level of human oversight on the systems, with consideration of the level of influence that the system has on workers.
"While employers have previously held a duty of care to ensure the health and safety of their workers, they are now specifically required to have regard to the impact of their digital work systems when taking steps to manage health and safety," Sutton-Kunc said.
"While the new legislation draws attention to novel safety risks, businesses must continue to adopt a holistic approach to the process of risk identification, assessment, control and review - with elimination of risks prioritised."
For further information please contact:
Michael Byrnes, Partner
Phone: + 61 2 9233 5544
Email: mjb@swaab.com.au
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
