Celia Antonovsky, board chair of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety, told delegates at the Fiji OHS conference that psychosocial risk management must be built into the governance, decision-making and values of organisations — not treated as an afterthought. Speaking at the Crowne Plaza Nadi Bay Resort in Nadi, Antonovsky warned that a respectful and inclusive workplace culture “does not happen by chance” and urged firms to move from awareness to practical implementation.
“While awareness is growing, the real challenge lies in implementation,” she said, calling on organisations to adopt “practical, structured approaches to identifying and managing psychosocial hazards.” Antonovsky said those hazards should be managed as systematically as physical risks, with workers’ voices, experiences and insights used to shape relevant, effective solutions.
A central point of Antonovsky’s address was integration: psychosocial risk management should not sit separately from existing health and safety systems but be embedded within governance frameworks and business processes so it informs decisions from the boardroom down. She also emphasised early intervention, saying that addressing issues before they escalate “not only protects workers but also reduces long-term organisational costs.”
Antonovsky highlighted a growing international recognition that psychosocial risks must be tackled with context-specific approaches — strategies tailored to local cultures, work practices and sectoral realities rather than one-size-fits-all models. Her presence as the Australian Institute of Health and Safety’s board chair underlined the trans-Tasman and regional exchange of occupational health expertise, she said, and signalled the importance of cross-border learning on workplace well-being.
Her remarks come amid broader debates over governance in Fiji and the Pacific. Recent episodes — from a governance standoff at Fiji National University to national discussions about restructuring anti-corruption oversight — have put institutional decision-making and accountability under the spotlight. Organisational leaders at the conference were told that strong governance of safety and psychosocial risks is part of rebuilding trust and resilience within institutions and businesses.
Antonovsky left delegates with a pragmatic charge: move beyond policies on paper to concrete systems and early-action practices that include workers in risk identification and solution design. As businesses and public agencies in Fiji face mounting pressure to strengthen governance, conference speakers argued, integrating psychosocial risk management into core governance processes will be a key test of whether those reforms translate into safer, more inclusive workplaces.