Mental health has moved from the margins to the centre of workplace safety, Australian Institute of Health and Safety Board chair Celia Antonovsky said as she opened the Fiji Occupational Health and Safety Conference in Nadi on Friday. Speaking at the Crowne Plaza Fiji Nadi Bay Resort and Spa, Ms Antonovsky described psychological wellbeing as “a central pillar of productivity” and urged employers and regulators to recognise its role in sustaining resilient workforces.
Ms Antonovsky praised Fiji National University’s National Training and Productivity Centre for convening the conference and bringing together a broad range of stakeholders. She said the NTPC’s leadership in assembling government, industry and training bodies for the dialogue signalled a clear commitment to advancing occupational health and safety across the greater Pacific region.
“The landscape of workplace safety is changing,” Ms Antonovsky told delegates. “Around the world there has been a significant shift in how we understand workplace health and safety.” She said this shift moves attention beyond traditional physical hazards to focus on psychosocial risks — aspects of work design, organisation and management that can cause psychological harm.
Antonovsky highlighted that recent legislative and regulatory developments in multiple jurisdictions reflect a growing international consensus that mental health is integral to overall workplace health and to productivity. Employers, she said, must now address issues such as workload design, job control, workplace culture and managerial practices as core elements of occupational safety systems rather than ancillary welfare concerns.
“Psychosocial wellbeing is no longer on the peripheral. It is central to building resilience in our workforces who are capable of navigating change, uncertainty and increasing demands,” she said, adding that attention to these risks supports both individual wellbeing and organisational performance.
Her remarks position mental health as a practical workplace issue for Fiji and other Pacific economies that are grappling with rapid change and rising service demands. By framing psychosocial wellbeing as both a health and productivity priority, the conference agenda signals an expectation that employers, training providers and policymakers will begin integrating mental-health risk assessment and mitigation into standard OHS practice.
The NTPC-hosted conference in Nadi brought together representatives from across sectors to discuss those practical steps. Delegates will be looking to translate global guidance and emerging legislation into context-specific policies for Fiji workplaces — a key challenge given the diversity of industries and the particular economic pressures in the Pacific. For now, Ms Antonovsky’s intervention underscores a shift in thinking: mental-health protections are increasingly seen as central to workplace safety rather than an optional add-on.